Journal retracts '98 autism link to vaccine
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LOS ANGELES -- Twelve years after Andrew Wakefield published his research in the international medical journal the Lancet purporting to show that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine causes autism, the journal formally retracted the paper Tuesday.
The action came less than a week after the United Kingdom's General Medical Council's Fitness to Practice Panel concluded that Dr. 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 he is guilty of serious professional misconduct. A positive finding could cause him to lose his medical practice.
Dr. Wakefield's study, conducted on only 12 children, concluded that the MMR vaccine is a primary cause of autism. He subsequently said he could not, in good conscience, recommend that parents have their children vaccinated.
His words and actions led to a sharp drop in vaccination rates in both Britain and the United States as well as a resurgence in measles.
Despite multiple later studies refuting 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.
"This will help to restore faith in this globally important vaccine and in the integrity of the scientific literature," Fiona Goodlee, a doctor who is editor of the BMJ -- formerly the British Medical Journal -- said in a statement Tuesday.
On Monday, Dr. Goodlee had joined the chorus of scientists urging the London-based 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."
First Published February 3, 2010 12:00 am
