Disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield – whose bogus anti-vax credentials have been blamed for the current measles epidemic – has set his sights on discrediting the mumps vaccine.
The 67-year-old, who fled to the US after being banned in Britain for fraudulently linking the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism, is seeking Hollywood fame with his first feature film Protocol-7 , which claims the mumps shot causes serious long-term health problems.
The film’s extended trailer debuted last weekend at the Autism Health Summit in San Antonio, Texas, where Wakefield told the conference’s 500 guests that the vaccine, which has been used for decades, is “dangerous.”
Attendees – who each paid £310 for the two-day event – gasped as scenes showed a child convulsing after being given a mumps shot.
Disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield – whose bogus anti-vax credentials are behind the current measles epidemic – has set his sights on discrediting the mumps vaccine
Wakefield aims for Hollywood fame with his first feature film Protocol-7, which claims the mumps shot 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) is actually the vaccine has become more dangerous.’
The film, out May 31 and based on a “true story,” stars Julia Roberts’ brother Eric as an executive at Merck who takes on two whistleblowers who claim the pharmaceutical company’s mumps vaccine is defective.
British actor Matthew Marsden, who appeared in Coronation Street and Rambo, plays Wakefield.
The trailer comes as measles cases in Britain hit a decade-high last week, amid concerns that efforts to contain the outbreak – especially in the West Midlands – are not working due to poor vaccination rate.
Wakefield’s now disgraced paper, published in the medical journal The Lancet in 1998, claimed the MMR jab caused autism and bowel disease in a study of just twelve children. The General Medical Council banned 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.
Since then, Wakefield has reinvented himself in the US as a podcast host and by making lucrative appearances at anti-vax conferences.
Promotional material for the conference referred to Wakefield as ‘Doctor’, while a table of merchandise, including £15 ‘Wakefield was Right’ T-shirts, did a brisk trade.
Wakefield told the audience: ‘Mumps in children is a trivial disease. We don’t need a mumps vaccine.’
It is not known whether Wakefield was paid for last Saturday’s performance, which took place via Zoom instead of in person because he was ill.
A woman who answered the door at an address associated with Wakefield in Austin, Texas, said the disgraced doctor was not granting interviews.
Dr. Martin Scurr, a GP and columnist for the Mail’s Good Health, said Wakefield was exploiting post-Covid fears about vaccines, adding: ‘Unfortunately he has many followers on social media who believe these conspiracy theories.’