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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAndrew Wakefield sues BMJ for claiming MMR study was fraudulent
Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who was struck off the medical register after triggering a health scare linking autism to the MMR vaccine, is suing the editor-in-chief of the British Medical Journal for defamation.
In a complaint filed to a district court in Texas, lawyers acting for Wakefield claim that articles, editorials and other statements that appeared in the BMJ were "false and make defamatory allegations" about the doctor.
The lawsuit names Fiona Godlee, the BMJ's editor-in-chief, and the British investigative journalist Brian Deer, who has covered the controversy over the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, which led to a drop in MMR vaccination rates to dangerous levels.
Documents filed with the court say the action arises in part from the publication in January 2011 of an article by Deer in the BMJ titled "Secrets of the MMR scare: how the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed" and an accompanying editorial by Godlee.
full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/05/andrew-wakefield-sues-bmj-mmr
TheWraith
(24,331 posts)Fuck Wakefield and his lying bullshit.
hlthe2b
(102,236 posts)at least in our courts. One would surely hope the same in G. Britain. That man (I refuse to honor him with the term "doctor" has done more to harm childhood public health efforts and worldwide efforts to reduce or eliminate measles, mumps and rubella (not to mention pertussis, but that issue is a bit more complicated), than anyone else. He is a fraud. Come and sue me, big boy.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,311 posts)where the libel laws infamously favour those suing. There have been cases where non-British people have sued non-British people, for a primarily non-British publication or website, just on the grounds that a few physical copies were distributed in Britain, or web records show a few Brits read the web article.
TheWraith
(24,331 posts)So bad, in fact, truth isn't considered a universal defense there.
Oh well, just makes it easier for his case to get shredded and thrown out.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,311 posts)and that burden of proof can make it very difficult, sometimes.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)This evil SOB belongs in jail.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)along with the fact when he did the fraudulent study, where was he?
good luck you bonehead.