The Next Chapter in the Wakefield Kufuffle

Chapter 2, Return of the Parents:

Media Advisory - News Conference

What:

1) On Wednesday 6th May 2009 a formal complaint will be filed with the General Medical Council of the UK against four senior doctors, all highly regarded members of the UK medical establishment. It is alleged, and supported by documentary evidence, that Dr. Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet, Dr. David Salisbury of the Dept. of Health, Professor Arie Zuckerman, former Dean of the Medical School, Royal Free Hospital, and Dr. Michael Pegg, Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Royal Free gave false testimony on oath in the GMC hearings involving Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Professor John Walker-Smith, and Professor Simon Murch.

2) At the same time parents of 4 children involved in the original Lancet study, on which the major allegations have been based, will make public statements regarding the GMC hearings.

When: Wednesday May 6, 2009
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm
Where: The Kingsway Hall Hotel, 66 Great Queen Street, London, WC2B 5BX,
www.kingswayhall.co.uk
Who: U.S. attorney James Moody, director of U.S. charities Safe Minds and the National Autistic Association, acting on behalf of 13 American and British autism organisations, states:

“Dr. Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet, Dr. David Salisbury of the Dept. of Health, Professor Arie Zuckerman, former Dean of the Medical School at the Royal Free Hospital, and Dr. Michael Pegg, Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Royal Free, should be investigated for supplying false testimony. Furthermore, the current GMC hearing against Drs. Wakefield. Murch and Walker-Smith should be terminated. This unwarranted attack on scientists and doctors who came to the aid of desperately ill children has deterred others from helping similarly affected children, and distracted attention from the public health crisis caused by the substantial rise in autism diagnoses.”

Three families representing four of the 12 children included in the original Lancet publication will speak out publicly for the first time about the GMC hearings to clarify the details of their childrens’ involvement in the case series, and express their families’ support of the doctors they consider to be wrongly under investigation by the GMC. A letter from the families to the GMC expressing support of the doctors being investigated will be read by those who are able to be present.

Contact: James Moody - autismandvax@aol.com; tel: 001 202-298-4766.