Vindication

So today is a pretty momentous one.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield has been struck off the medical register by the General Medical Council.

You may remember him from the completely fictitious link between the MMR vaccine and autism in children.

Not only was his research totally discredited but it was referred to as dishonest, unethical and that he had acted irresponsibly.

A decent summary of it all can be found here

Times Article

and

Guardian Article

I can't begin to explain just how important this is. This was an instance where someone managed to convince people of a threat that simply wasn't there and then made money out of their subsequent fears. This is aided and abetted by a press that doesn't know how to deal with any science related story (certainly not without using the word boffins) and a public that are primed to believe any scare story, especially when it might affect their kids.

We need a scientifically literate population. By which I mean that we need a population that knows what evidence actually is and whether what is provided as evidence really is enough to substantiate any claims made. People obviously don't need to know as much about science as weirdos like me who choose to study it but they should understand the simple methodology of how science is conducted.

What we also need though is an honest press that reports rather than sensationalises.

Of course in this case a great many people with broad scientific education were also taken in by Dr. Wakefield. His article was published in the Lancet after all, so I understand why some people attributed great posterity to his findings. Which brings me to the peer review system. The GMC has found massive issues regarding his methodology so why weren't these picked up when the article was originally submitted?
This was a contentious paper so why weren't people very keen to make sure that everything in it stood up to scrutiny?

We live in a world where news travels ridiculously fast and grows legs along the way. We need to be absolutely sure that what is published stands up to meticulous scrutiny, not just cursory glances at it.

It's taken a long time but Andrew Wakefield has finally been shown up as the utterly loathsome man he is.

I hope we all learn a lesson from this whole grubby affair.