A review by lifepluspreston
The Doctor Who Fooled the World: Andrew Wakefield's war on vaccines by Brian Deer

4.0

The Doctor Who Fooled The World by Brian Deer--This largely unprecedented examination of what be of the most miscited studies in medical history is jaw-dropping yet matter of fact both in scope and in what it reveals. Deer has been on the medical investigative journalism beat for years, uncovering stories about Big Pharma and biotech hucksters alike. But his examination of Andrew Wakefield and his infamous Lancet study claiming a link between the MMR vaccine regimen and autism is incredibly comprehensive. Deer exposes, for example, Wakefield's compromised approach from the start, which went carefully hidden for years. Deer writes with barely-contained disdain about Wakefield, who he views as intentionally and maliciously pulling the wool over desperate parents' eyes time and time again for decades, with Deer's conclusions, proven out time and time again in court, still explained away by Wakefield's most vocal champions. I knew from mainstream coverage of the Lancet study that the conclusions drawn from such a small sample size shouldn't be trusted, I didn't realize that they were so woefully compromised from the get-go. Very frankly, even the publication of this thorough a takedown of a figure who has proven to be extraordinarily litigious attempting to protect his fraudulent claims seems to demonstrate its own veracity. Thumbs up.