Dr. Andrew Wakefield at home in Austin, Texas.
Dr. Andrew Wakefield, in his own words:
“Seventeen years ago, as an academic gastroenterologist, I entered the autism arena. My experience of the intervening years has created two indelible impressions. The first is that the art and science of medicine are bent out of shape – badly so. The second is that the age-old tenets of clinical practice – the patient’s narrative and clinical examination – are gold dust.
Hammering out the kinks and dents in a medical system that is corrupted at every level by ‘incentive’ and proscriptive bureaucracy is a monumental task. For my medical colleagues to recognize that ignoring the self-evident link between unsafe immunization practices and chronic immune diseases in children is simply looking for something or someone else to blame, is an irony too far – at least until they are personally affected.
My colors are nailed to the mast. I gain strength from the increasingly histrionic message of our detractors. They fail to realize that, in taking on a group of mothers whose children have been harmed, they confront one of life’s most indomitable forces.
Until change comes, doctors and scientists invested in the health and rights of citizens, and in the proper conduct of medicine and science in the public interest, must be encouraged and protected.”
Whether you can give $5 or $500, every dollar donated to the Academic Integrity Fund goes to protecting academic freedom and the doctors and scientists who need your support.
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Early this morning I sat writing a reflective letter to a new friend who spends far more time than myself on supporting the cause for a return to moral values and integrity within the medical establishment in the UK, which painfully appears to have lost its way. I recalled with great sadness and nostalgia in my letter the heady days of the late 50′s in leafy Hampstead Heath in North London where I lived at the time. The old original red brick building of the much admired, much loved and well respected Royal Free Hospital was soon to be replaced by a shiny new glass 60′s edifice, which still remains the centre of this village. But now it is run by civil servants and directives from the politically driven and morally corrupted governing National Health Service, once the pride of our inspired leaders of socialised medicine. I asked myself this morning if there could ever be a return to those lost values of pride and respect for our Health Service and all those who worked so tirelessly in it. I came to the conclusion and the firm belief that it was not an impossible task, as long as there are still a handful of men and women such as Andy Wakefield who are prepared to give their livelihoods and make great sacrifices on a personal level to retain their own beliefs in such ideals. Thank you Andy for keeping the faith. You have helped me and hundreds of others to keep theirs.
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Dr. Wakefield,
You are my hero!!!
With gratitude and support from a mom who figured out that vaccines caused my son’s chronic respiratory illnesses (not autism); and won’t stop telling anyone who will listen about the “side effects” of vaccines. (Homeopathy later solved his woes…)
Linda R