The High Court quashed the GMC's findings and erasure against Professor John Walker-Smith — the senior clinical investigator and co-author of the 1998 paper, not Andrew Wakefield. The ruling turned on procedural and reasoning defects in the panel's determination against Walker-Smith personally; it did not address, still less vindicate, the science of the Lancet paper. Wakefield did not appeal.
The court quashed the GMC panel's determination of serious professional misconduct and the erasure sanction against Professor John Walker-Smith, holding that the panel's reasoning was flawed, that it made no explicit finding on intention, and that it misinterpreted the Lancet paper.
The High Court quashed the GMC's findings and erasure against Professor John Walker-Smith — the senior clinical investigator and co-author of the 1998 paper, not Andrew Wakefield. The ruling turned on procedural and reasoning defects in the panel's determination against Walker-Smith personally; it did not address, still less vindicate, the science of the Lancet paper. Wakefield did not appeal. The book's suggestion that the paper or Wakefield was 'later vindicated in court' misattributes this ruling: it concerned a different doctor and procedural fairness only.