Antivax doctor gets appropriate award

Andrew Wakefield

Rarely has such a fitting prize been bestowed upon a more deserving contender:

Andrew Wakefield, the doctor struck off the medical register for his discredited research that claimed to find a link between autism and the MMR vaccine, can add another honour to his list this Christmas: the inaugural Golden Duck award for lifetime achievement in quackery, set up by the science writer Simon Singh.

Runners-up for the award were Prince Charles and David Tredinnick, the Tory MP for Bosworth and member of the Commons health select committee. The Good Thinking Society, a campaign group led by Singh, set up the annual Golden Duck award to recognise those "who have supported or practiced pseudoscience in the most ludicrous, dangerous, irrational or irresponsible manner".

I wonder if even the remaining lights of the antivaccination camp aren’t starting to distance themselves from Wakefield at this point. Unless they plan to use this latest demerit as more “proof” that Big Pharma^TM is out to get them for their advocacy of The Truth^TM, of course.

(via @BadAstronomy)