Brian Deer

This article is about British journalist Brian Deer. For indigenous Canadian librarian A. Brian Deer and his work, see Brian Deer Classification System.
Brian Deer

Brian Deer at a Westminster Skeptics meeting
Nationality British
Education University of Warwick
Occupation Investigative journalist
Notable credit(s) Investigative reporting on medical issues and the pharmaceutical industry
Website http://briandeer.com

Brian Deer is a British investigative reporter, best known for inquiries into the drug industry, medicine and social issues for the Sunday Times of London.

Career

After graduating in philosophy from the University of Warwick, he became editor and press officer for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and was a member of The Leveller magazine collective. Subsequently he joined The Times, then The Sunday Times, first as a business news subeditor and then as a staff news reporter and feature writer.[1] In the 1980s, under Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil, he was the UK's first social affairs correspondent,[2] and between 1990 and 1992 reported from the United States.

Investigations

In 1986, one of Deer's early investigations exposed research by British scientist Professor Michael Briggs at Deakin University, Australia into the safety of the contraceptive pill. Deer's reports revealed that numerous of Briggs's studies were fabricated so as to give a positive profile for the products' cardiovascular safety. The research was largely financed by the German drug company Schering AG.[3][4]

In 1994, his investigation of The Wellcome Trust led to the withdrawal in the UK of the blockbuster antibiotic, Septrin (also sold under the name Bactrim)[5] and the sale by the Wellcome Trust of its drug company subsidiary.

In 2005, the withdrawal of the painkiller Vioxx was followed by an investigation by Deer into the people responsible for the drug's introduction.[6]

In 2006, Deer's documentary "The drug trial that went wrong",[7] investigated the experimental monoclonal antibody TGN1412. It was nominated for a Royal Television Society journalism award.[8]

In 2008, a celebrity psychiatrist, Raj Persaud, was suspended from practising medicine and resigned his academic position after being found guilty of plagiarism following a Deer investigation.[9][10]

MMR vaccine controversy

In a series of reports[11] between 2004[12] and 2010,[13] Deer investigated concerns over the MMR vaccine that arose with the publication in 1998 of a research paper in the medical journal The Lancet written by Andrew Wakefield. Deer revealed that Wakefield had multiple undeclared conflicts of interest,[14][15] had manipulated evidence,[16] and was responsible for what the BMJ called "an elaborate fraud".

Deer's investigation[17] led to the longest-ever inquiry[18] by the UK General Medical Council (GMC). In January 2010, the GMC judged Wakefield to be "dishonest", "unethical" and "callous",[19] and on 24 May 2010, Wakefield was struck off the UK medical register. Responding to Deer's findings, The Lancet partially retracted Wakefield's research in February 2004,[20] and fully retracted it in February 2010 following the GMC findings.[21][22] In 2011, Deer published his findings in the BMJ[23] with an endorsement by the editors.[24]

On 18 November 2004, UK Channel 4's Dispatches broadcast Deer's one-hour television documentary: "MMR: What they didn't tell you".[25][26] In a review, The Guardian noted "After a year of rebuffs, Deer ran Dr Wakefield to ground at an Indianapolis conference on autism. The camera took a bit of a buffet and Dr Wakefield left with Deer following, shouting: "We have very important questions to ask you about your research and your commercial ambitions, sir! Will you stand your ground and answer?" If this was hounding, and it was, Dr Wakefield had only himself to blame for running away."[27]

In response to the documentary, Wakefield initiated a libel suit against Deer. The case was later dropped and Wakefield became liable for the costs incurred by Deer and the other defendants.[28]

In January 2012, Wakefield sued Deer and the British Medical Journal, this time in Texas, but the case was thrown out in both district and appeals courts, with Wakefield again ordered to pay costs.[29][30]

In October 2014, in an article published in The Sunday Times, Deer reported on a ruling from the Court of Protection, then recently made public but with the identities of the parties redacted. In the ruling, Justice Baker wrote, "The critical facts established in this case can be summarised as follows. M has autistic disorder. There is no evidence that his autism was caused by the MMR vaccination. His parents’ account of an adverse reaction to that vaccination is fabricated."[31]

In July 2015, Deer gave a lecture at The Amazing Meeting titled "Vaccines: The Vanishing Victims".[32]

Honours

Working for The Times and The Sunday Times Deer received several awards, including two British Press Awards for his Sunday Times investigations.[1][33]

Following his first British Press Award in 1999, in February 2011 he was nominated for two more, in the categories of news reporter of the year and specialist journalist of the year, the latter of which he won on 5 April 2011.[34][35][36]

In October 2011, Deer won the annual HealthWatch award, previously awarded to Sir Iain Chalmers, Professor David Colquhoun, and other prominent British medical campaigners.[37]

Deer was the 2009 Susan B Meister lecturer in child health policy at the University of Michigan,[38] and the 2012 Distinguished Lecturer in Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse.[39][40]

On November 17 2016 Deer was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (D Litt Hon) by York St John University. [41]

References

  1. 1 2 Flanagan, Padraic (25 March 1999). "The Guardian Takes Two Top Newspaper Awards". PA News via briandeer.com. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  2. ↑ Deer, Brian (30 May 1988). "Social whirl sets reporting trends". UK Press Gazette via briandeer.com. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
  3. ↑ Maslen, Geoff; McIntosh, Philip (30 September 1986). "Whirlwind Rise and Fall of a Pill Scientist". The Age. Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  4. ↑ Deer, Brian (28 February 1986). "Exposed: the bogus work of Professor Briggs". The Sunday Times via briandeer.com. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  5. ↑ Deer, Brian (27 February 1994). "Top selling drug may have killed hundreds in Britain". The Sunday Times via briandeer.com. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  6. ↑ Deer, Brian (21 August 2005). "Investigation: Victims of a drug that took a hidden toll". The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  7. ↑ The drug trial that went wrong Dispatches Channel 4 television (September 2006)
  8. ↑ Deer, Brian. "The Drug Trial That Went Wrong". Channel 4. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  9. ↑ Wainwright, Martin (18 June 2008). "Persaud's blatant cribs were flabbergasting, professor tells tribunal". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  10. ↑ Deer, Brian (16 April 2006). "Persaud told to withdraw book in new copycat row". The Times. London. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
  11. ↑ Nick Miller, "Debunking the link between vaccination and autism," Sydney Morning Herald 4 February 2010
  12. ↑ Ruling on doctor in MMR scare, Yorkshire Evening Post, 4 February 2010
  13. ↑ Nailed: Dr Andrew Wakefield and the MMR vaccine fraud
  14. ↑ The Sunday Times 2004:
  15. ↑ 2004 BBC documentary:
  16. ↑ Deer B (8 February 2009). "MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism". The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
  17. ↑ Dr Rahul K Parikh, The autism lie that won't die, Salon 4 February 2010
  18. ↑ Brian Deer, The Truth of the MMR vaccine scandal, The Sunday Times, 24 January 2010
  19. ↑ Brian Deer, Callous, unethical and dishonest, The Sunday Times 31 January 2010
  20. ↑ Simon H Murch, Andrew Anthony, David H Casson et al, Retraction of an interpretation, The Lancet, 6 March 2004
  21. ↑ The editors of The Lancet, Retraction—Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children, The Lancet, 6 February 2010
  22. ↑ Gardiner Harris, Journal Retracts 1998 Paper Linking Autism to Vaccines The New York Times 2 February 2010
  23. ↑ Deer B (2011). "How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed". BMJ. 342: c5347. doi:10.1136/bmj.c5347. PMID 21209059.
  24. ↑ Godlee F, Smith J, Marcovitch H (2011). "Wakefield's article linking MMR vaccine and autism was fraudulent". BMJ. 342:c7452: c7452. doi:10.1136/bmj.c7452. PMID 21209060.
  25. ↑ "Brian Deer's 2004 film on Andrew Wakefield - full film". YouTube. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  26. ↑ Carey, Matt. "Brian Deer's original 2004 Channel 4 report on Andrew Wakefield: MMR: What they didn't tell you". Left Brain Right Brain. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  27. ↑ "Brian Deer's investigation into the supposed links between the MMR jab and autism.". Twenty Twenty. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  28. ↑ MMR Doc drops libel case versus Channel Four Press Gazette
  29. ↑ Wakefield v British Medical Journal Publishing Group Ltd, Brian Deer and Dr Fiona Godlee (Judgment) Texas Court of Appeals, Third district, at Austin, 19 September 2014
  30. ↑ Dr. Andrew J. Wakefield, MB, BS v. The British Medical Journal Publishing Group, Ltd.; Brian Deer; and Dr. Fiona Godlee Appeal from 250th District Court of Travis County (Opinion)
  31. ↑ Deer, Brian (12 October 2014). "A warrior mother lost to MMR lies". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  32. ↑ "Vaccines: The Vanishing Victims". Lanyard. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  33. ↑ Brian Deer wins a second British Press Award |accessdate=28 September 2013
  34. ↑ Dominic Ponsford, The Press Awards: the Times leads with 18 nominations, Press Gazette, 25 February 2011 Archived 28 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  35. ↑ Press Awards: full list of nominees, The Guardian, 25 February 2011
  36. ↑ Press Awards
  37. ↑ Healthwatch UK Awards Archived 14 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  38. ↑ University of Michigan Health System, Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit Archived 14 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  39. ↑ University of Wisconsin, La Crosse
  40. ↑ Brogan, Stacy (4 October 2012). "British journalist to speak at UW-L about false vaccine autism link". WXOW. La Crosse, Wisconsin. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  41. ↑ St John University, York

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