High-profile career trashed; then what?

[ewmon]

We occasionally see people such as Andrew Wakefield whose top-drawer high-profile careers get utterly trashed, and I wonder what they might end up doing for work -- welcome people at the local Wal-Mart? We say "they're all washed up", but seriously, for example, who would hire Wakefield and for what kind of work?

[Marat]

I'm not sure that his 'career trashed' status will last for long. The controversy over whether vaccines cause autism is a huge topic which has gone on for many years now with countless papers published in peer-reviewed journals yielding both positive and negative results for the hypothesis. The way the popular media is now presenting the story implies that there was only one study by Wakefield which posited that vaccines caused autism and now the more recent study has debunked it and that's that. But this is absolutely untrue; the reality is that this is just one tiny skirmish within a gigantic, long-term struggle, with enormous pressure against the hypothesis being brought to bear by the drug companies and medical profession in order to salvage their reputation and preserve their wealth.

 

Anyone who knows anything about science is aware that the statistical interpretation of data and their signficance is complex and charges of fiddling with the data can be as arbitrary as the counter-assertions that the data have been represented fairly. Wakefield, who has a whole book on the subject and whose career will not stand or fall on the basis of a single article, may well turn out to be the hero of the supporters of the hypothesis that vaccines cause autism. After all, in the U.S. a special court has been in existence for years to pay out huge sums of money to people based on the assumption that vaccines do cause autism, so there is considerable institutional power behind the hypothesis.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

The allegations against Wakefield are not against his statistics but suggest that he misrepresented the health of his patients -- for example, claiming that five children's problems began with the vaccine, when medical records show that they existed long before. Also, the vaccine court has ruled in several recent cases related to autism that thiomersal vaccines do not cause autism, so the institutional power is shifting.

 

It's my understanding, however, that Wakefield managed to continue a career despite losing his medical license and having his famous study retracted. I believe he ran a clinic for autistic children in Texas somewhere, though he has since resigned, and still maintains a following among anti-vaccine people. I suspect he'll be able to make a living by writing a book or two, appearing at conferences and giving speeches.

 

I mean, look at Kevin Trudeau. He's repeatedly been sued by the FTC for fraud and false advertising for his Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About (among other things), and he still puts out new books and programs, and people buy them. Being labeled fraudulent hasn't slowed him down yet.

[CharonY]

Their academic careers are usually over, though. Also, I believe he already has written a book. The problem with Wakefield was initially that it was flawed in several areas and he did not follow ethical guidelines. The more recent findings indicate that data (the health records) were actually falsified, which is outright fraud.