Excerpted from.........
FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER
Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org
December 4, 2001
News Morgue Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp
·
Message From Andrew Wakefield
·
Commentary on Andrew Wakefield
·
Letters to the FEAT Newsletter re: Andrew Wakefield
[This statement went to Andrew Wakefield’s UK supporters
and parents prior to the press announcements regarding his departure from Royal
Free and University College Medical School over the weekend.]
In view of your previous financial support for medical
research co-ordinated through this charity, I write to inform you of a
development which will undoubtedly appear in the press over the next few days.
For some time, the future of the research at the Royal Free
has been under threat. However, I am pleased to tell you that I have reached an
agreement with the Royal Free and University College Medical School, whereby members
of my team, and the research they are conducting, are protected for the future
as long as sufficient funds are forthcoming to maintain their salaries.
In return, I will no longer be employed at the Royal Free,
but will co-ordinate a broadening of the research effort in order to resolve
these issues as swiftly as possible. However, the Medical School will permit me
to continue close collaboration with my colleagues in Paediatric Gastroenterology
and elsewhere, including full access to all patient records and data, both
present and future. This has not been an easy decision, but has been taken in
order to safeguard the future of this work.
One great benefit of this arrangement is that I shall no
longer have to spend a considerable amount of time in distracting political
negotiations with the Medical School and will be able to devote 100% of my
effort to the research. I anticipate being offered a research position in
another institution once news of this arrangement becomes published, and will
inform you of any offers received and accepted in due course.
Until then, please rest assured that the work is
continuing apace and that the only material change is that the Medical School
will no longer have my name on their establishment or pay my salary.
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate
to contact me. I
suggest that the offices of Visceral, the medical research
foundation that
administers, co-ordinates and seeks funding for the projects
underway in six
medical schools in Europe and the United States, is the best
location at
which to contact me. Although I am physically in Visceral’s
offices for only
a few days a month, Robert Sawyer or Nikki Carter should be
able to find me
without too much difficulty. Once again, many thanks for
your support. Yours
sincerely
FRC Path Director, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study
Group Trustee,
Visceral
* * *
[By Barbara Loe Fisher, President, National Vaccine
Information Center
in the NVIC newsletter.]
Whenever ignorance, envy, greed and suppression dominate
the business of a state (or a profession), there will always be heroes who step
forward to challenge the status quo. They are usually individuals who lead
ordinary lives until, one day, they are faced with an extraordinary situation
and make a conscious decision to do the right thing no matter what price they have
to pay.
Andrew Wakefield, a brilliant young British
gastroenterologist rising quickly in the ranks of his peers, made a conscious
decision in 1997 that he could not turn away from a truth he had discovered
during the course of his scientific research, even though he knew it could cost
him his career. When he realized the lives of children depended upon his having
the courage to refuse to remain silent about the association he found between
MMR vaccine and autism, he chose to do what was right instead of do what was
safe.
Now he is paying the price being exacted by a scientific
profession and militarized public health infrastructure that cannot tolerate independent
thought and scientific investigation for fear it will lead to change. Like all
those involved in perpetuating totalitarian systems that suppress free thought,
expression and action, those who have tried to silence and destroy Andrew
Wakefield have only succeeded in revealing to the people how afraid they are of
what he has to say.
Dr. Wakefield will not only survive what they have
done, he will
triumph over it. The truth about vaccines and neuroimmune
damage, like
autism, will shine bright and clear in the end, no matter
how many try to
hide it because of the courage of individuals like Andrew
Wakefield
* * *
I am very sorry to hear that Andrew Wakefield has been
forced out of his position at the Royal Free. We all know what he has done to
target gut/autoimmune dysfunction as a marker of autism and as an avenue for research.
What can we do to support Dr. Wakefield himself? I’ve
heard him speak in person and on television and he has impressed me with his
honesty, his care and concern for his patients with autism. He is also
incredibly brave to take on the British medical establishment virtually alone.
I am concerned that his brave stance has cost him his
livelihood and career. There must be something the autism community here in the
US can do to help him - at least to write letters of support, etc., if someone
has his address. I write to you because the FEAT newsletter, of course, was
first with this news and I’m hoping you may have some ideas about how to
proceed.
·
Paula Stepankowsky
Dear Paula,
Wakefield addresses some of your concerns in his
message
reproduced above.
You can also reach him by email at
awakefield@rfc.ucl.ac.uk . This account is at Royal Free so
there’s no way of knowing how long it will remain
active. -LS
This is a sad, sad day for all. Having met Andy Wakefield, I can tell you that he is one of the
few in the medical community whose goals are not at all tainted by
establishment’s view of what’s politically correct. He has not wavered in his quest to find the reasons and
eventually a cure for our children.
I am sure that as more and more of the people with power
are affected by autism and bowel problems - and this certainly will happen -
that Andy will find them at his door asking him for help.
Good luck, Andy.
You are a good man.
·
Eric Einbinder, Dad to Jake and Matt, Latham, NY
My god! Where the hell do we go from here? That poor man, he has lost his livelihood
for being our voice, and for researching our children because no one else had
the guts to do it. Who do we put pressure on to sort this out?
The government is so scared of the truth they think it
will all go quiet. Don’t they realise that hospitals from all over send our
kids to Andy Wakefield because they don’t have a clue how to treat them, and
those kids that haven’t been fortunate to be sent to him, have been treated
wrongly and their bowel problems are a hell of a lot worse? This whole thing is
outrageous.
I have a son Klae, who is 6 and he was damaged by the MMR.
I have five children and only he had the vaccine. My other children are fine,
and he is not the youngest and I am not old. I don’t think the government has
many excuses left.
A big thank you to Andy Wakefield.
·
Sandra Russell
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