Knowles Sits Down With Andy Wakefield, Former Doctor Pinned As Man Who Sparked ‘Anti-Vaxx’ Movement 

On the latest episode of “Michael & …” Daily Wire host Michael Knowles sits down with Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a highly-controversial figure who has called for more research into the safety of vaccinations, especially the Measle, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccination, which is typically given to children around 12-15 months of age.

Wakefield has been stripped of his medical license and accused of being a fraudster, allegedly falsely claiming in a 1998 study that the MMR vaccine causes autism in children and sparking a dangerous anti-vaccine movement.

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Speaking to Knowles, however, Wakefield said that study, which focused on children whose parents thought their child was vaccine-injured, never made such a claim.

“This was a case series just reporting what the parents had told us, what the doctors had told us, who referred them, and what we found on the clinical investigation,” Wakefield says. “We could not leave out the parents’ reference to the MMR [vaccine]. But we said at the conclusion of the study, this study does not prove an association, let alone a causal association with the MMR vaccine.”

“So hold on, hold on,” Knowles interjects. “This is the part that’s the craziest in the story to me.”

“You are blamed for creating vaccine skepticism. You are blamed for measles outbreaks. You are blamed and called a terrible fraudster and a horrible practitioner of medicine because you said in your 1998 study that the MMR vaccine causes autism. Except you didn’t say that?”

“Quite the opposite,” Wakefield says. “And we said what we do need is further research into this matter. And that was it. And, the study was really a report of bowel disease [symptoms] in combination with this regressive developmental disorder.”

Knowles then asks Wakefield if he believes the MMR vaccine causes autism.

“Does this vaccine cause autism? Are you willing to say, ‘Yes, it does?’” Knowles asks. “Or do you say, ‘Look, I just think this should be investigated, as I said in my 1998 study.’ And how concerned should parents be?”

“I wouldn’t change my position,” Wakefield says. “In my personal belief, there is a very strong indication that it causes autism. But that’s not good enough. You don’t make public policy based on Andy Wakefield’s belief — it needs the science that we advocated for all those years ago.”

During the discussion, Wakefield says he never retracted his study, and disputes the media’s claim that his colleagues did.

“Nine of my colleagues were persuaded to sign the retraction of an interpretation — the interpretation being that the MMR vaccine causes autism,” Wakefield says. “I said, we never made that claim. How can you retract something that doesn’t exist?”

“You know, they were under pressure,” he says of his colleagues. “I don’t judge them, but they fell in line and did that.”

Wakefield and two other colleagues “just refused to do that,” he says. “It was a retraction of an interpretation that was never made. And that’s the truth behind it.”

Knowles also asks Wakefield about a number of accusations made against him.

“So they accused you of misconduct in the methods of the study,” Knowles said. “They accused you of taking money from other interests — they had this whole litany of accusations in the popular media. Was there any truth to the allegations?”

“The lawyers had come to me at some point during this, the conduct of this work, not the research, not the Lancet paper, and I had agreed,” Wakefield says. “This is very common practice to undertake a study to determine whether there was a link between the vaccine.”

“People work for both defendants and for plaintiffs in medical litigation,” he continues. “But I was singled out as, ‘Oh, Wakefield was doing this to undermine the MMR vaccine and launch his own vaccine onto the market and make a fortune.’”

Wakefield says he disclosed that he was working on behalf of these children in litigation, as was proper protocol, despite accusations that he did not.

“It’s totally transparent, but the allegation was that it was a cover-up, that…was all a big secret,” he says. “No, it wasn’t…but what do you do about that when you don’t control the editorial you write?”

During the lengthy discussion, Wakefield also gives his thoughts on separating out the MMR vaccine, delaying the shot on the vaccination schedule, his film “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,” his ties to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and much more.