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The Doctor Who Fooled the World: Andrew Wakefield’s war on vaccines Paperback – 1 Sept. 2020
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A reporter uncovers the secrets behind the scientific scam of the century.
The news breaks first as a tale of fear and pity. Doctors at a London hospital claim a link between autism and a vaccine given to millions of children: MMR. Young parents are terrified. Immunisation rates slump. And as a worldwide ‘anti-vax’ movement kicks off, old diseases return to sicken and kill.
But a veteran reporter isn’t so sure, and sets out on an epic investigation. Battling establishment cover-ups, smear campaigns, and gagging lawsuits, he exposes rigged research and secret schemes, the heartbreaking plight of families struggling with disability, and the scientific deception of our time.
Here’s the story of Andrew Wakefield: a man in search of greatness, who stakes his soul on big ideas that, if right, might transform lives. But when the facts don’t fit, he can’t face failure. He’ll do whatever it takes to succeed.
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Print length416 pages
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LanguageEnglish
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PublisherScribe UK
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Publication date1 Sept. 2020
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Dimensions23.3 x 3.4 x 15.4 cm
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ISBN-10191161780X
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ISBN-13978-1911617808
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Review
‘It’s a remarkable story and this is a remarkable book … Helping to explain the political and social predicament that now afflicts so many of us ― the crisis in truth and its exploitation by people without scruple.’
– David Aaronovitch, The Times, ‘Book of the Week’‘Brian Deer’s definitive account of Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent attempt to link the onset of autism in children with the MMR vaccine could not be better timed … gripping.’
– Dominic Lawson, The Sunday Times‘Andrew Wakefield is one of the darkest figures of our time, personally responsible for launching a mass panic about vaccines that has resulted in a resurgence of deadly childhood epidemics worldwide. He has also caused untold grief to misguided parents who view this con-man as a saviour, and to autistic people who face further stigma by being falsely portrayed as ‘vaccine-damaged’. Written with the meticulousness of a journalist determined to find out the truth and the pulse-pounding pacing of a thriller, The Doctor Who Fooled the World is a profoundly important book.’
– Steve Silberman, author of Neurotribes: the legacy of autism and the future of neurodiversity‘Seldom … has any new book been more timely than The Doctor Who Fooled the World.’
– Decca Aitkenhead, The Sunday Times‘Comprehensive.’
– Michael Fitzpatrick, The Telegraph'A brilliant book.’
– Kevin O’Sullivan, Kevin and Ash, talkRadio‘The Doctor Who Fooled the World is a definitive account of the most consequential medical fraud of the twentieth century and of investigative reporter Brian Deer's role in uncovering it. Deer's book is a compelling reminder of what great investigative journalism looks like and why it matters.’
– Kathleen Hall Jamieson, PhD, author of Cyberwar and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center‘Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and Deer shines some of the brightest rays yet to reveal the rotten heart of one of the greatest public health frauds in history.’
– Dr Zubin Damania, University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Medicine, and host of ZDoggMD Show‘A magnificent book. Too few people know how greed and deceit conspired to create the myth that vaccines cause autism. Only Brian Deer can tell that whole story, because he uncovered all of its chilling twists and turns.’
– Dr Ivan Oransky, president of the Association of Health Care Journalists and co-founder of Retraction Watch‘As a paediatrician, I’ve witnessed with fury the impact that Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent science has had on the health of children. This brilliantly written book is a must-read.’
– Dr Su Laurent, author of Your Baby Month By Month: what to expect from birth to 2 years‘An extraordinary story of medical fraud and scaremongering, told by the courageous and tenacious journalist who revealed the truth.’
– Simon Singh, author of Fermat’s Enigma‘This riveting history of Andrew Wakefield’s career as an advocate for the discredited link between the measles vaccine and autism serves as a stirring demonstration of the process and power of investigative journalism … Deer recounts uncovering Wakefield’s deceptions thanks to testimony from disillusioned parents of study participants and guidance from more meticulous scientists … Readers who love a good debunking will find Deer’s narrative logical, exciting, and enraging.’
– Publishers Weekly‘Riveting from start to finish. Thankfully, reporters like Brian Deer exist. He is not afraid to look into the eyes of the Grim Reaper and to fight back on behalf of all of us for whom scientific rigour is so important, but also perhaps more importantly, for the families whose lives have so often been devastated by misinformation and bad science.’
– Ava Easton, Chief Executive, Encephalitis Society‘At times Deer’s book reads more like a thriller, and reveals the extent to which an ostensibly empirical scientific endeavour can be distorted by the subjectivity of human nature.’
– Decca Aitkenhead, The Australian‘Well argued and entertainingly written.’
– Robin Osborne, GPSpeak‘Very detailed yet easy to read story of the events … It’s investigative journalism at its best and medical research at its worst … The Doctor Who Fooled the World is a fantastically detailed look at why we need investigative journalism and the global effect of misinformation.’
– Sam Still Reading‘Mind-boggling … Every chapter drops your jaw.’
– The Big Think‘Although many people think they know this now-infamous story, it is likely they are unaware of all its dramatic details.’
– Dr Paul A. Offit, Science‘Deer has been on the front line investigating this scandal for more than a decade, and his book is captivating on many levels … This stunning work sounds an urgent message and demonstrates the essential role of investigative journalism in uncovering the truth.’
– Kristen Rabe, Foreword Reviews‘Seldom has any new book been more timely than The Doctor Who Fooled the World … At times the book reads more like a thriller than a journalistic investigation.’
– The Sunday Times Magazine‘It’s fantastic … I couldn’t put it down. It was absolutely enthralling, disturbing, and it had me on the edge of my seat the whole way through.’
– Heidi Robertson, host of The Skeptic Zone‘In this coronavirus age, where conspiracy theories run rampant, it’s an essential reminder: facts matter.’
– Natalie Kotsios, The Weekly Times‘Riveting … a compelling portrait of hubris and the terrible dark shadow it can cast.’
– Saad B. Omer, Nature‘Exposing researchers who lie, cheat and fake their data often requires the work of courageous whistleblowers or tenacious investigative journalists. Enter Brian Deer, an award-winning reporter for the Sunday Times of London.’
– Michael Shermer, The Wall Street Journal‘This is storytelling at its best … And this is ultimately, investigative journalism at its best … The Doctor Who Fooled the World does an amazing job of taking you to the beginnings of the modern-day anti-vax movement, opening your eyes to the ulterior motives of the man who lit the match and started a fire that sadly, can't seem to be put out.’
– Melody Tan, Mums at the Table‘This book is the whole story.’ 4.5 STARS
– Robyn Douglas, The Advertiser‘The Doctor Who Fooled The World provides a damning indictment of the processes and procedures against scientific fraud in medical academe … The great strength of Deer’s book is how he clearly explains the issues associated with medical and scientific research in the specialised area of vaccinations. His account is readily accessible to persons without such knowledge or training. The Doctor Who Fooled The World should be read by all of us for its explanation of campaigns against vaccination – battles between science and superstition, science and pseudo-science – which, if not put to rest, will have devastating consequences for all of us.’
– Braham Dabscheck, The Newtown Review of Books‘Deer’s book contains everything you would ever want to know about the Wakefield MMR-autism fraud, and then some. He is the great expert on this matter.’
– Fortean TimesAbout the Author
Brian Deer is a multi-award-winning investigative reporter, best known for inquiries into the drug industry, medicine, and social issues for the Sunday Times of London. He joined the paper in the 1980s and quickly won praise for campaigns that led to the lifting of legal immunities from hospitals and to the Disabled Persons Act of 1986, which conceded new rights to people with disabilities. He was the UK media's first social affairs correspondent, covering issues such as poverty, homelessness, prisons, and health policy.
Among Deer's professional recognitions, he was nominated three times for British Press Awards, the paramount prize for newspaper journalists, winning the title of specialist reporter of the year twice, and shortlisted for the title of reporter of the year. Judges said of his first, for investigations published longform in The Sunday Times Magazine, that he was probably "the only journalist in Britain that polices the drugs companies." For his second, awarded for investigations included in this book, they said his reporting was "a tremendous righting of a wrong." Among his television work, his hourlong Dispatches investigation, The Drug Trial That Went Wrong, was shortlisted for a Royal Television Society award.
In 2016, Deer was made Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) by York St. John University. He was also the 2009 Susan B. Meister lecturer in child health policy at the University of Michigan and the 2012 Distinguished Lecturer in Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. He has lived in New York, San Francisco, and Atlanta, and presently lives in London.
Deer has never taken any stance on whether vaccines can or can't, do or don't, cause autism or any other such issue. He emphasizes that he's a journalist, not a campaigner. As he writes in The Doctor Who Fooled the World of his professional maxim as a reporter, "Is it new? Is it true? Do we have it to ourselves?"
Website: briandeer.com Twitter: @deerbrian
Product details
- Publisher : Scribe UK (1 Sept. 2020)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 416 pages
- ISBN-10 : 191161780X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1911617808
- Dimensions : 23.3 x 3.4 x 15.4 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 124,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 47 in Paediatrics
- Customer reviews:
About the author
Brian Deer is a multi-award-winning investigative reporter, best known for inquiries into the drug industry, medicine, and social issues for the Sunday Times. He's author of the nonfiction investigation, The Doctor Who Fooled the World, and the medical thriller Blind Trial.
Among Deer's professional recognitions, he has been nominated three times for British Press Awards, the paramount prize for UK newspaper journalists, winning the title of specialist reporter of the year twice, and also shortlisted for the title of reporter of the year. Judges said of his first prize, for investigations published longform in The Sunday Times Magazine, that he was probably "the only journalist in Britain that polices the drugs companies." For his second, awarded for investigations included in The Doctor Who Fooled the World, they said his reporting was "a tremendous righting of a wrong."
Among Deer's television work, his hourlong primetime investigation The Drug Trial That Went Wrong was shortlisted for a Royal Television Society award. In 2021, The Doctor Who Fooled the World won the Eric Hoffer Award for nonfiction and a gold medal in the Independent Publishers Association Awards.
In 2016, Deer was made Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) by York St. John University. He was the 2009 Susan B. Meister lecturer in child health policy at the University of Michigan and the 2012 Distinguished Lecturer in Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse.
Website: briandeer.com
Twitter: @deerbrian
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The fact that there is a Wakefield fraud story is well-known. The details I think are not so well known, and certainly weren’t to me. Brian Deer takes the reader through a chronological account of Wakefield’s life from his upbringing to his current situation. I think Brain was trying to shine a light into his background, trying to unpick the pathologies that lead to a health catastrophe that is still playing out over two decades later. In this he fails not because of lack of skill but because, to me, Wakefield’s motives for his sustained actions are simply incomprehensible and I don’t think any amount of explaining can illuminate.
The research is amazing – the depth of the evidence, who Brian managed to get on record, the compassion for the afflicted (but not by MMR) children. All these shine through, making it a very human book as well.
Even if the book was only a forensic demolition of Wakefield’s fraud it would be excellent. But it also works on another, more chilling level. A profound part of the book, and possibly one of the more important, was the chronicling of the start of social media as a tool for misinformation.
The book starts with Wakefield at a Trump inauguration event publishing on social media. This ties the start and end of the story together in a disquieting way. The events in the late 1990s and the ripples from the retracted and discredited Lancet MMR paper have borne rotten fruit in the present day. You can see the same lies being propagated over social media in relation to the COVID vaccines (and every other technical advance). The difference is in the 1990s there were gatekeepers and accountability and ultimately retraction. Now that the social media owners have renounced all responsibility for their creation, the poison flows unchecked and uncontrolled across the modern world. Wakefield, it turns out, was merely a harbinger, and later a midwife, of the misinformation age.
A shocking betrayal of ethics, morality and deceit by a British ex-doctor professionally uncovered by an investigative journalist with tenacity and courage.
It's a real pity that it is not written for UK readers but for the American with its spelling, phrasing and descriptions - it reduces the authorship. The flow of the story is a little confusing with it lapsing back to previous events before returning to the story.
If you want the truth, read this. At the end Deer is careful to make some very strong statements that, if they and anything in the book could be proven to be untrue in a court, would by his own admission render him homeless and bankrupt. Instead Wakefield has failed in suing him twice so far.
A detailed account of the true story around 'The Doctor With No Patients', an egomaniac and immature man who would not accept he was not some sort of Nobel prize calibre genius. The grim tale of how he used 12 children in a conformationally biased study is compelling reading. The testimonies of those who abandoned him, gave up on his bizarre fraud and the parents who realised they had been conned...they are all there and can all be proven.
It's a real life medical detective thriller. A global cult now exists which is putting all our health in danger, and one man can be traced to be at the heart of it. As pathetic as he is dangerous, Wakefield is a testament to just how gullible and quite frankly stupid many educated and apparently very well qualified people can be.
I loved it. Lots of laughs too. One man who really did the hard work and trawled through a sea of documents and evidence whilst interviewing a huge number of people. His reward? Victimisation and character assassination. Brian Deer, I salute you.
I am in the Covid 19 vaccine trials and looking forward to my second shot next week. I really do not have anything to worry about. ;)
One criticism: the author occasionally lapses into tabloid tropes, making reference to the physical attributes of his subjects which add little to the narrative, or implying inappropriate romantic entanglements between Wakefield and his supporters.