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Brian Deer
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Doctor Who Fooled The World Paperback – September 10, 2020

by Brian Deer (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 291 ratings
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Brian Deer exposes a conspiracy of fraud and betrayal behind attacks on a mainstay of medicine: vaccination.

From San Francisco to Shanghai, from Vancouver to Venice, controversy over vaccines is erupting around the globe. Fear is spreading. Banished diseases have returned. And a militant “anti-vax” movement has surfaced to campaign against immunization. But why?

In The Doctor Who Fooled the World, award-winning investigative reporter Brian Deer exposes the truth behind the crisis. With the page-turning tension of a detective story, he unmasks the players and unearths the facts. Where it began. Who was responsible. How they pulled it off. Who paid.

At the heart of this dark narrative is the rise of the so-called “father of the anti-vaccine movement”: a British-born doctor, Andrew Wakefield. Banned from medicine, thanks to Deer’s discoveries, he fled to the United States to pursue his ambitions, and now claims to be winning a “war.”

In an epic investigation, spread across fifteen years, Deer battles medical secrecy and insider cover-ups, smear campaigns and gagging lawsuits, to uncover rigged research and moneymaking schemes, the heartbreaking plight of families struggling with disability, and the scientific scandal of our time.

2021 winner: Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY), and 2021 Eric Hoffer Book Award
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  1. Print length
    416 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Scribe UK
  4. Publication date
    September 10, 2020
  5. Dimensions
    9.17 x 1.34 x 6.06 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    191161780X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1911617808
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribe UK (September 10, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 191161780X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1911617808
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.17 x 1.34 x 6.06 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 291 ratings

About the author

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Brian Deer

Brian Deer

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Brian Deer is a multi-award-winning investigative reporter, best known for inquiries into the drug industry, medicine, and social issues for the Sunday Times. He's author of the nonfiction investigation, The Doctor Who Fooled the World, and the medical thriller Blind Trial.

Among Deer's professional recognitions, he has been nominated three times for British Press Awards, the paramount prize for UK newspaper journalists, winning the title of specialist reporter of the year twice, and also shortlisted for the title of reporter of the year. Judges said of his first prize, for investigations published longform in The Sunday Times Magazine, that he was probably "the only journalist in Britain that polices the drugs companies." For his second, awarded for investigations included in The Doctor Who Fooled the World, they said his reporting was "a tremendous righting of a wrong."

Among Deer's television work, his hourlong primetime investigation The Drug Trial That Went Wrong was shortlisted for a Royal Television Society award. In 2021, The Doctor Who Fooled the World won the Eric Hoffer Award for nonfiction and a gold medal in the Independent Publishers Association Awards.

In 2016, Deer was made Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) by York St. John University. He was the 2009 Susan B. Meister lecturer in child health policy at the University of Michigan and the 2012 Distinguished Lecturer in Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse.

Website: briandeer.com

Twitter: @deerbrian

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  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars An important book
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 24, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Brian Deer’s journalism is important and thorough on a tragic and very important topic. While I knew the broad strokes of parts of this, from the dispatches documentary and news articles, there a lot of information I didn’t know and it was fascinating and compelling to read.

    I was young when Wakefield had his big press conference and I remember over the next few years seeing how it affected young parents I knew who didn’t know what to do for the best and felt paralysed with fear and guilt.

    While Wakefield is an immoral and narcissistic (if unfortunately also charming and convincing) conman without a shred of decency, I am angered that other people allowed and abetted what he did, without those people I don’t think he would have had the credibility or resources to have the impact he did. I am particularly appalled at the conduct of the Lancet and Wakefield’s superiors at the Teaching Hospital.

    My heart breaks for the children and their families, and even more for those who have been hurt or killed by completely preventable diseases in the name of Wakefield’s ego. I don’t blame those that truly believe his nonsense, they are victims too and often desperate. I only wish that they could see through his lies and conspiracies.

    It troubles me that in the future (because of changes and decline in print newspapers and journalism) we might not have this kind of investigative journalism when we need it.
    Report
  • Bloodstain Pattern
    5.0 out of 5 stars Das ist ein wichtiges Buch
    Reviewed in Germany on September 10, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    In heutigen Zeiten ist es en vogue geworden Impfungen ohne Wissen zu kritisieren, um sich selbst als sehr gebildet darzustellen. Oftmals ist der Lancet Fraud nicht bekannt und dieses Pseudo-Wissen setzt sich weiter fort, da vielen Menschen dieser Betrug nicht bekannt, man hört etwas und geht davon aus, dass es wahr ist. Aus diesem Grunde ist dieses Buch wichtig, denn es schildert aus der Sicht des Journalisten. DIeses Buch rollt den Betrug gründlich und systematisch auf. Man sollte dieses Buch unvoreingenommen lesen, den hier ist viel über die Frühphase des Impfskeptizismusses beschrieben. Selbstverständlich gab es medizinisch gesehen Impfungen, die kritisch waren, so z.B. die frühen Masernimpfungen und so nicht mehr zum Einsatz kommen. Aber es gibt auch Fälle wie diesen, in denen falsches Wissen zum Zwecke des Betruges benutzt wurde. Lancet zog die Studie zurück und Wakefiel verlor seine medizinische Zulassung. Wichtig ist es auch diese Seite zu kennen.
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  • Pete Boyd
    5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling
    Reviewed in France on June 21, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Fascinating book. Also horrifying that so many people were drawn in and had their lives ruined by the charlatan Wakefield.
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  • pauls
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
    Reviewed in Australia on October 26, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    I knew some of the story but not all of it. To have all of the discovery and fact assembled in one clear, concise and informative narrative is just brilliant. The book lays bare, in great detail, the fraud that Andrew Wakefield attempted to execute and the havoc he wrought on public health and the families he basically victimised. That the book also captures recent movements of Wakefield and the anti vaccine mob is a bonus. Recommended reading for those who want to understand this fiasco, key players and impacts. Well told story that is incredibly interesting.
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  • copsewood
    5.0 out of 5 stars Watergate level exposure of medical science fraud with devastating consequences
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 23, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    This book is significant and important, as it exposes the dishonest historical origin of an influential and popular modern anti-science movement. The author, Brian Deer, was no friend of unethical practice in the pharmaceutical industry, having a career history of uncovering evidence resulting in withdrawal of various products.

    But when false accusations are made against legitimate products of the pharma industry, who stands to gain ? Compensation for what are presumed as vaccine injuries are based substantially on the timing of adverse events in relation to a date of vaccination. Parents of children suffering adverse conditions, regardless of whether these conditions are related to vaccination or not, are naturally likely to question what they could have done differently, and so are highly susceptible to manipulation of their false guilt, and persuasion by charismatic influencers concerning dates when events occurred.

    A substantial legal fund consequently became available to pay for work which needed a scientific basis to evidence a connection between vaccines and autism, in the compensation claims court, when no connection was known. Wakefield became determined to find a connection, and wasn't in any mood to respond to the funding of his work by telling the truth that no evidence of connection could be found. So his work resulted in invasive procedures not in the benefit of children operated on, for the purpose of finding evidence where none existed. When none was found, Wakefield faked it, based on falsely claimed dates of events in Wakefield's notorious 1998 Lancet paper, but which didn't correspond to the medical records and history of the children concerned.

    Wakefield sued Brian Deer for his initial investigative work, and this resulted in Deer obtaining the medical records relevant to Wakefield's case before the latter case was withdrawn. These medical records proved to be Wakefield's undoing, at the longest unprofessional conduct case ever conducted before the GMC, which resulted in Wakefield being struck off in 2010.

    Brian Deer's was a very long investigation, pursued on and off for years. I became aware of Deer's work soon after Wakefield's disbarment based on 2 papers he wrote for the BMJ, but I didn't then begin to know the whole story. This book details the events from start to finish, with the benefit of wisdom and hindsight on the part of the author.

    If you want to understand the modern anti vaccine movement and its origins, this book is a must read.
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