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In 1998, a study appeared in The Lancet claiming that measles-mumps-rubella vaccine caused autism in 12 children. Th e study stirred fear and controversy among parents and physicians and caused a ripple effect that remains even now - nearly a year aft er the study was retracted.
A new report released in the British Medical Journal, titled "Secrets of the MMR scare: How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed," has revealed that the original Wakefield study was not only conducted "dishonestly" and "irresponsibly," as stated in the retraction in February 2010, but that the data are "bogus."
"Clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare," the editors of BMJ said about the 1998 Wakefield study.
In the first part of a special BMJ series, journalist Brian Deer exposes the erroneous data behind claims that launched a global fear over MMR. Th is report also reveals how the appearance of a link with autism was manufactured at a London medical school, according to the BMJ.
Investigation of a fraud
The series of articles written by Deer intend to show the extent of fraud by Andrew Wakefield, MBBS, and how it was perpetrated. He draws on interviews, documents and data made public at the General Medical Council (GMC) hearings and shows how Wakefield altered numerous facts about the patients' medical histories to support his claim of having discovered a new syndrome. The series is also expected to provide evidence of how Wakefield's institution, the Royal Free Hospital and Medical School in London, supported him as he "sought to exploit the ensuing MMR scare for financial gain, and how key players failed to investigate thoroughly in the public interest when Deer first raised his concerns," the BMJ report said.
In the second installment in the series, "Secrets of the MMR scare: How the vaccine crisis was meant to make money,"...