Medical Journal Retracts Study Linking MMR Vaccine to Autism
 

(CNN) -- The medical journal The Lancet on Tuesday retracted a controversial 1998 paper that linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism.

The study subsequently had been discredited, and last week, the lead author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, was found to have acted unethically in conducting the research.

The General Medical Council, which oversees doctors in Britain, said that "there was a biased selection of patients in The Lancet paper" and that his "conduct in this regard was dishonest and irresponsible."

The panel found that Wakefield subjected some children in the study to various invasive medical procedures such as colonoscopies and MRI scans. He also paid children for blood samples for research purposes at his son's birthday party, an act that "showed a callous disregard" for the "distress and pain" of the children, the panel said.

Following the council's findings last week, The Lancet retracted the study and released this statement.

"It has become clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al. are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation. In particular, the claims in the original paper that children were 'consecutively referred' and that investigations were 'approved' by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false. Therefore we fully retract this paper from the published record."

Dr. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, said he reviewed the GMC report regarding Wakefield's conduct.

"It's the most appalling catalog and litany of some the most terrible behavior in any research and is therefore very clear that it has to be retracted," he said.

The rest.

Hallelujah!

It's about damn time.

Unfortunately, retracting one article won't undo the damage that these delusional idiots have done to the "reputation" of vaccines.

No kidding :mad:

Goodness.

This should be emailed to everyone who thinks that social science research is the only research with biases and subjectivity; and where the findings should be received within the context of the limitations of the research.

Agreed on both counts.

Well the crazies that are so anti-vaccine were crazies beforehand, most likely. People are still having "chicken pox" parties so that their children get "mild" cases and build up the anti-bodies.

BTW, maybe the med-heads know - why is there no chicken pox vaccine? You'd think there would be, considering the chicken pox becoming shingles in adults thing.

ETA: It might at least be enough for non-crazies to shut up the crazies who go on their anti-vaccine rants with a simple "who told you this" "Oh I read it in an article" "You mean the one that was disproved and retracted?"

There is one. My kids have had it (with no side effects), so hopefully it works!

I had no idea! Am I an idiot, or is it less common/less publicized?

Would like to point out that because of this now-discounted research, many people chose not to have their children vaccinated, and some of those children went on to develop autism or an autism spectrum disorder despite not being vaccinated.

There is a difference between a cause, a consequence, a correlation, and a coincidence.

The shoddy research and related memes surrounding autism... gah! it has caused me countless headaches in my professional life.

The chicken pox vaccine is widely available and is being more commonly administered, I believe.

It's caused more than a few headaches, and heartaches, for parents of kids on the spectrum as well.

It just started being required for kids to be in school in the past 10 years or so. You probably missed it because you were too old for it already and don't have kids. In fact, I just heard something on the news last week that now they say kids need two doses of it.

Like someone else said, it hasn't been around long. The technical vaccine name is varicella. DD just got it at her 15m checkup (along with the MMR vax. No reactions for her from either vax.)

Must be! When I was a kid, we had to get the chicken pox antibodies the hard way. We also had to blow on video games to make them work, walk to school in six feet of snow, up hill both ways, with no shoes!

LOL

Kids today are so spoiled and unappreciative!