Sequel to Andrew Wakefield’s anti-vaccine film to be released in secret venues across US
A sequel to disgraced British doctor Andrew Wakefield’s anti-vaccine film is reportedly being secretly prepared for release in venues across the US.
Mr Wakefield, who was struck from the British medical register over a discredited paper suggesting a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism, has continued to promote his views in America, where he now lives.
The Telegraph revealed in May that Mr Wakefield has been fundraising for a follow-up to his controversial 2016 film "Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe". The film was removed from streaming sites such as Amazon Prime Video earlier this year after an outcry from US lawmakers who are attempting to tackle America’s worst measles outbreak in more than two decades.
It has now emerged that the second documentary, entitled "Vaxxed II: The People’s Truth", will be released in early November in around 50 locations with the details remaining a closely guarded secret to avoid attempts to block it from being screened.
According to the Guardian, "Vaxxed II" will be shared from coast to coast in the same “Vaxxed” bus that was deployed to share the 2016 film.
Mr Wakefield appears in the new film to claim he has evidence of "vaccine injuries" and presents himself as a crusader waging battle against an evil pharmaceutical industry, the newspaper reported. He also repeats his unsupported arguments for a return to the days of herd immunity, saying it “worked extremely well".
The former doctor was linked to a slump in vaccination rates in Britain in the 90s after he co-authored a paper suggesting a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism. An investigation into the paper found that it relied on bogus data and uncovered financial and ethical conflicts of interest which led to Mr Wakefield being struck off in 2010.
Mr Wakefield has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, even suggesting he is the victim of a conspiracy by public health officials and pharmaceutical companies. After being shunned by the British medical community, Mr Wakefield relocated to America, where he has become a prominent member of the anti-vaccine movement.
A string of studies in the last nine years have found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism, including a decade-long study by researchers at Copenhagen’s Statens Serum Institut which followed more than half a million Danish children born from 1999 to 2010.
But US federal and state health officials have warned the spread of misinformation by anti-vaccine groups on social media has heavily contributed to a spike in measles cases, with 1,250 cases of the highly contagious disease recorded so far this year.
Another prominent figure involved in the production of "Vaxxed II" is Robert F Kennedy Jnr, the activist son of the late Robert Kennedy. He incorrectly claimed to the Guardian that many of those affected by the current measles outbreaks were people who had already been vaccinated. In fact, the US stated the cases occurred primarily among people who had not received vaccines.
The US health protection agency has warned that measles can cause serious complications. It stated that of the people to have contracted the disease so far, 119 of the people who got measles this year were hospitalised, and 61 reported having complications, including pneumonia and encephalitis.