Callous Disregard: Autism and Vaccines: The Truth Behind a Tragedy [Hardcover]

Andrew J. Wakefield (Author), Jenny McCarthy (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 24, 2010

Andrew Wakefield reveals the the inside story of the vaccine-autism connection, and his controversial research.

As Andrew Wakefield states in his prologue, “If autism does not affect your family now, it will. If something does not change—and change soon—this is almost a mathematical certainty. This book affects you also. It is not a parochial look at a trivial medical spat in the United Kingdom, but dispatches from the battlefront in a major confrontation—a struggle against compromise in medicine, corruption of science, and a real and present threat to children in the interests of policy and profit. It is a story of how ‘the system’ deals with dissent among its doctors and scientists.”

In the pursuit of possible links between childhood vaccines, intestinal inflammation, and neurologic injury in children, Wakefield lost his job in London’s Royal Free Hospital, his country of birth, his career, and his medical license. A recent General Medical Council ruling stated that he was “dishonest, irresponsible and showed callous disregard for the distress and pain of children.” Maligned by the medical establishment and mainstream media, Wakefield endeavors to set the record straight in Callous Disregard. While explaining what really happened, he calls out the organizations and individuals that are acting not for the sake of children affected by autism, but in their own self-interests.

Editorial Reviews

Review

I'm so glad Andy Wakefield finally has the chance to tell his story. . . . For hundreds of thousands of parents around the world, myself included, Andy Wakefield is a symbol of strength and conviction that all parents of children with autism can use to fight for truth and the best lives possible for their kids. (Jenny McCarthy, from her foreword )

As a mother of a boy who regressed into autism immediately following his MMR vaccination, I welcome this book unreservedly . . . Whatever your thoughts on the issue, if you read nothing else at all on the vaccine-autism debate, this has to be the most crucial book you read. (Polly Tommey, editor of The Autism File )

Andrew Wakefield has been subjected to extraordinary criticism and condemnation from professional colleagues and the wider community since he first questioned the safety of the MMR vaccine. In this book he answers his critics—powerfully and comprehensively—and sets the record straight. It is essential reading for anyone wanting to know the truth behind the MMR debate and the politics of vaccination policy. (Dr. Richard Halvorsen, author of The Truth about Vaccines )

Meeting Dr. Andy Wakefield changed our lives and . . . we are forever grateful. His wise and measured advice about vaccinations helped us dodge a bullet . . . Our fourth son [had] multiple allergies and repeated infections . . . We now fully realize [he] would have been a victim of immune overload had we followed the regular vaccine schedule. . . . [He] is [now] bright and healthy . . . This book provides a terrifying insight into what has been happening behind the scenes as efforts redouble to silence Dr. Wakefield . . . It is a wake-up call to those who think [he] is anything other than a modern day hero fighting for all of our children. (Robert Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellan, Troublemaker Studios, Austin, Texas )

Dr. Wakefield sets the record straight. It was not he who showed callous disregard towards vulnerable, sick children with autism. It was the British medical establishment, the General Medical Council, the media and the pharmaceutical industry that threw the children under the bus to protect the vaccine program. This is a book for everyone who cares about our future. (Mary Holland, Esq., co-founder, Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Advocacy )

About the Author

Andrew J. Wakefield, MB, BS, FRCS, FRCPath, is an academic gastroenterologist. He received his medical degree from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School (part of the University of London) in 1981, and pursued a career in gastrointestinal surgery with a particular interest in inflammatory bowel disease. He has published over 130 original scientific articles, book chapters, and invited scientific commentaries. He and his wife, Carmel, live in Austin, Texas, and have four children: James, Sam, Imogen, and Corin.

Jenny McCarthy is a world-renowned autism activist, mother, and bestselling author. She splits her time between Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, and California. Her books include Belly Laughs, Baby Laughs, Life Laughs, Mother Warriors, Healing and Preventing Autism, and Louder Than Words.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing (May 24, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1616081694
• ISBN-13: 978-1616081690
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #291,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr Andrew Wakefield, MB, BS, FRCS, FRCPath, is an academic gastroenterologist. He received his medical degree from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School (part of the University of London) in 1981, one of the third generation of his family to have studied medicine at that teaching hospital.


He pursued a career in gastrointestinal surgery with a particular interest in inflammatory bowel disease. He qualified as Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1985 and in 1996 was awarded a Wellcome Trust Traveling Fellowship to study small-intestinal transplantation in Toronto, Canada. He was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2001. He has published over 130 original scientific articles, book chapters, and invited scientific commentaries.


In the pursuit of possible links between childhood vaccines, intestinal inflammation, and neurologic injury in children, Dr. Wakefield lost his job in the Department of Medicine at London's Royal Free Hospital, his country, his career, and his medical license.


He is married to Carmel, a physician and a classical radio presenter. They have four children, James, Sam, Imogen, and Corin, and a black mongrel called Bella.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent account of what has happened to Dr. Wakefield, June 20, 2011

By 

Keith - See all my reviews

This review is from: Callous Disregard: Autism and Vaccines: The Truth Behind a Tragedy (Hardcover)

You will notice there are many 5 star reviews, no 2 or 3 star reviews, then a hoard of 1 star reviews. I can tell you these 1 star reviewers did not even read the book and are here to spout the same sales pitches from pharma we always hear.

Dr. Wakefield wrote in this book a good history of how he tried to help answer questions about autism, and those that stand to profit from killing and injuring children and adults organized to do everything they could to stop him. While Dr. Wakefield conducted some interesting scientific studies and started to answer some questions he was stopped by those in power. He tells you what he knows, what he discovered, and what happened to him. The book is written like a thriller, but then again, can you imagine being Dr. Wakefield and ticking off a multibillion dollar industry?

112 of 156 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute Must Read Regardless of Bias, June 14, 2010

By 

Phoenix Mom (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Callous Disregard: Autism and Vaccines: The Truth Behind a Tragedy (Hardcover)

I had the pleasure of thanking Dr. Wakefield, for his work on behalf of injured children, myself at the 2008 Autism One Conference in Chicago. I looked forward to reading the book but having heard Dr. Wakefield speak and reading numerous articles on the issue, knew that there would be no surprises for me inside.

Before ordering the book, I carefully read many of the positive reviews but ALL of the negative reviews and the related comments because I wanted to see it through the eyes of both sides.

I need to preface that I have read the Lancet paper several times. The conclusion never changes for me no matter how many times I read it in light of the accusations against Dr. Wakefield. In the Discussion section of the paper there is this statement "We did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described" and the last paragraph of the study "We have identified a chronic enterocolitis in children that may be related to neuropsychiatric dysfunction. Inmost cases, onset of symptoms was after measles, mumps, and rubella immunisation. Further investigations are needed to examine this syndrome and its possible relation to this vaccine."

Dr. Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues clearly NEVER said that the MMR was the cause of these children's autism. After reading the book and the timeline of events, it is clear that procedures were followed to the letter to provide clinical care to some very sick children and the findings were reported in an effort to move the discussion forward to help the Lancet 12 children, the many children who were presenting with similar symptoms and open the discussions for research so that more children would not suffer unnecessarily.

If you read the Lancet paper and this book and come to any other conclusion, you are reading with blinders on and an unreasonable bias.

I cannot thank Dr. Wakefield enough for his courage in this situation and for continuing to fight for the children in speight of the absolutely ridiculous charges against him and his colleague Dr. John Walker-Smith.

The book is excellent and meticulously written.

I hope that it will continue to open people's eyes to the issues of informed consent in the US vaccination policy and place a seed of doubt about the safety of vaccines in the mind of parents who have not yet vaccinated their children. I cannot tell my friends with new babies enough times, "Educate before you vaccinate, there are risks, and those risks DO NOT always outweigh the benefits."

97 of 137 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The paper, the children, the medical school, and the medical council behind a controversy, August 21, 2010

By 

Erik Gfesser (Lombard, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Callous Disregard: Autism and Vaccines: The Truth Behind a Tragedy (Hardcover)

Especially since there exists significant controversy surrounding this book, as a reviewer my focus is to help the potential reader of this book understand the content rather than argue about matters that have little to nothing to do with the actual scope of this book. In reading some of the reviews here, as well as the great amount of comments that have been submitted in response to these reviews (especially shortly after book release), it is apparent that some have not actually read this book, and the reader of this review can rest assured that this reviewer has read the entire content (an action which is aligned with his consistent policy to do so prior to submitting any review).

In pursuing possible links between childhood vaccines, intestinal inflammation, and neurologic injury in children, these events concluded with Wakefield losing his position in the Department of Medicine at London's Royal Free Hospital as well as his license to practice medicine in the UK. Because of the complexity of the events leading up to these ends, it is difficult for any review of this size to give this book justice. The first chapter discusses the original paper written by physicians (among them Wakefield) at the Royal Free Hospital and subsequently published in "The Lancet" (the self-described "world's leading general medical journal and specialty journals in Oncology, Neurology and Infectious Diseases") in 1998 entitled "Ileal lymphoid nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis and pervasive developmental disorder in children".

This paper discussed "clinical findings in 12 children with an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) occurring in association with a mild-to-moderate inflammation of the large intestine...accompanied by swelling of the lymph glands in the intestinal lining...predominantly in the last part of the small intestine". At the same time, parents of 9 (8 in the original paper) of the 12 ended up indicating that onset of ASD symptoms occurred following exposure to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. As explained by the author, the seemingly small number of 12 reflects the nature of a "case series", of which this original paper was the first. Wakefield sites Hennekens and Buring's "Epidemiology in Medicine" explanation of case series - "the experience of a single patient or group of patients with a similar diagnosis" that "may lead to formulation of a new hypothesis". May. The discussion continues by indicating that an analytic study can then be performed to investigate possible causal factors. The case study itself is not designed to investigate possible causality.

No hypothesis was stated in the paper, and because of this there is no hypothesis to test. The paper simply indicated that the authors "did not prove an association between measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described" and that "further investigations are needed to examine this syndrome and its possible relation to the vaccine". If it were not for the seriousness of this topic, the dialogue between medical school dean Zuckermann and the press, the proceedings at the General Medical Council, and the nature of many of the myths surrounding this controversy and the resultant misinformation that has resulted would be rather amusing. Wakefield is very exhaustive in his presentation, so be prepared for one of the most dense texts written for a general audience that you have ever read. While some portions of the text can be difficult to follow at times, the common themes that run throughout enable readability.

In addition to a thorough discussion of the original case series paper, the children involved in the case series paper, the effort to terminate vaccine safety research, the press briefing following case series paper publication, the events surrounding the distancing of the editor and the other authors from the case series paper, and the General Medical Council (GMC) proceedings, Wakefield provides pertinent historical information in the concluding chapters of this book that might be of interest to some readers, especially since context can help provide additional perspective to a topic that has increasingly become more controversial in recent years due to the apparent increase in autism, the desire to discover causes in order that autism might be treated, and the conflicts of interest that reside within and between some of the parties involved in this debate.

While the author provides a historical backdrop throughout this book, it is not until chapter nine that he discusses to any significant degree events prior to the last 15 years. This reviewer paused when he read the first sentence of the tenth chapter, where the author stated that he has "often wondered where autism might be today had it not fallen into the hands of child psychiatrists". While a new syndrome, "dementia infantilis", later called Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (CDD), was described in 1908 within the "Journal for Research and Treatment of Juvenile Feeblemindedness", it was not until 1943 that child psychiatrists first laid claim to autism (and readers may recall recent reports in the media that indicate ASD will continue to be listed in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM-5) set to be published in a couple years).

Wakefield also provides an examination of the diagnosis process, urging alongside other researchers to standardize studies on comprehensive neurological and medical investigation, because autism rates cannot be compared across studies without regard to statistical sample or comprehensiveness. In the words of Wakefield, "it took a group of gastroenterologists to recognize the significance of these symptoms, not through some preternatural wisdom, but through the diligent application of their training. A new syndrome was described and the findings replicated around the world. Erasure from the Medical Register is a small price to pay for the privilege of working with affected families".