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Published at www.cmaj.ca on Feb. 4
Twelve years after publishing a landmark study that turned tens of thousands of parents around the world against the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine because of an implied link between vaccinations and autism, The Lancet has retracted the paper.
In a statement published on Feb. 2, the British medical journal said that it is now clear that "several elements" of a 1998 paper it published by Dr. Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues (Lancet 1998;351[9103]:637-41) "are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation."
Dr. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, declined through a spokesperson to speak to CMAJ about this issue.
In the original paper, Wakefield and 12 coauthors claimed to have investigated "a consecutive series" of 12 children referred to the Royal Free Hospital and School of Medicine with chronic enterocolitis and regressive developmental disorder. The authors reported that the parents of eight of the 12 children associated their loss of acquired skills, including language, with the MMR vaccination. The authors concluded that "possible environmental triggers" (i.e. the vaccine) were associated with the onset of both the gastrointestinal disease and developmental regression.
In fact, as Britain's General Medical Council ruled in January, the children that Wakefield studied were carefully selected and some of Wakefield's research was funded by lawyers acting for...