Disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield, whose false anti-vaccine data has been blamed on the current measles epidemic, has set out to discredit the mumps vaccine.
The 67-year-old, who fled to the US after being fired in the UK for fraudulently linking the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism, is seeking fame in Hollywood with his first feature film Protocol-7, which states The mumps vaccine causes serious long-term health problems.
The film’s extended trailer debuted at the Autism Health Summit in San Antonio, Texas, last weekend, and Wakefield told the 500 conference guests that the vaccine, which has been used for decades, is ” dangerous”.
Attendees, who paid £310 each for the two-day event, gasped as scenes showed a child convulsing after receiving a mumps vaccine.
Disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield, whose false anti-vaccine data has been blamed on the current measles epidemic, has set out to discredit the mumps vaccine.
Wakefield seeks fame in Hollywood with his first feature film Protocol-7, which claims that the mumps vaccine causes serious long-term health problems.
Wakefield, who divorced his wife of 35 years and later dated supermodel Elle Macpherson, told the crowd: “It’s not just a matter of this vaccine not working… the disease (mumps) has become more dangerous.” precisely because of the vaccine.”
The film, which opens May 31 and is based on a “true story,” stars Julia Roberts’ brother Eric as a Merck executive who confronts two whistleblowers who claim that the mumps vaccine of the pharmaceutical company is defective.
British actor Matthew Marsden, who appeared in Coronation Street and Rambo, plays Wakefield.
The development comes as measles cases in the UK last week hit a ten-year high amid concerns that attempts to contain the outbreak, particularly in the West Midlands, are not working due to low vaccination rates. .
Wakefield’s now-disgraced paper, published in the medical journal The Lancet in 1998, claimed that the MMR vaccine caused autism and intestinal diseases in a study of just 12 children. The General Medical Council sacked him after ruling that he behaved unethically by using children showing signs of autism as “guinea pigs” and subjecting them to unnecessary invasive procedures, including colonoscopies.
Wakefield has since reinvented himself in the United States as a podcast host and lucrative speaking engagements at anti-vaccine conferences.
In promotional material for the conference, Wakefield was referred to as “doctor”, while a table of merchandise, including £15 t-shirts saying “Wakefield was right”, was quickly traded.
Wakefield told the audience: ‘Mumps in children is a trivial disease. “We don’t need a mumps vaccine.”
It is not known if Wakefield was paid for last Saturday’s appearance, which was done via Zoom rather than in person because he was sick.
A woman who answered the door at an address linked to Wakefield in Austin, Texas, said the disgraced doctor was not giving interviews.
Dr Martin Scurr, a GP and the Mail’s Good Health columnist, said Wakefield was exploiting post-Covid fears about vaccines, adding: “Unfortunately he has many followers on social media who believe in these conspiracy theories.” “.