Report linking autism to vaccines is retracted by medical journal

[CreekDog]

"Wakefield's words and actions led to a sharp drop in vaccination rates in both Britain and the United States and a resurgence in measles. Despite multiple subsequent studies that have refuted the link, vaccination rates have remained lower than they were before his report, and many parents remain concerned about the potential effects of the lifesaving vaccines."

"The action came less than a week after the U.K. General Medical Council's Fitness to Practice Panel concluded that Wakefield had provided false information in the report and acted with "callous disregard" for the children in the study. The council is now considering whether Wakefield is guilty of serious professional misconduct. A positive finding could cause him to lose his medical practice."

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-wakefield3-2010feb03,0,3136800,print.story

The Lancet issues a retraction on the 12-year-old paper by Dr. Andrew Wakefield, which had said the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine causes autism. The report led to a sharp drop in vaccination rates.

By Thomas H. Maugh II

9:34 AM PST, February 2, 2010

Twelve years after Dr. Andrew Wakefield published his research in the international medical journal the Lancet purporting that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine causes autism, the journal on Tuesday formally retracted the paper.

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Wakefield's study, conducted on only 12 children, concluded that the MMR vaccine is a primary cause of autism. He subsequently said that he could not, in good conscience, recommend that parents have their children vaccinated.

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"This will help to restore faith in this globally important vaccine and in the integrity of the scientific literature," Dr. Fiona Goodlee, editor of the BMJ -- formerly the British Medical Journal -- said Tuesday in a statement. On Monday, Goodlee had joined the chorus of scientists urging Lancet to withdraw the paper.

The original report "was outrageous," said Dr. Jeffrey Boscamp of the Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. "Most of the authors asked for their names to be removed from the study. It's unfortunate that it undermined confidence in vaccines when in fact it wasn't true at all."

Wakefield, who now practices in Austin, Texas, said the accusations against him were "unfounded" and "unjust." Other researchers, however, are happy to put the episode behind them so they can go on with the difficult task of finding the true causes of the disorder.

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