Doctor behind discredited vaccine-autism link handed quackery award

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 science writer Simon Singh.

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