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You are here: Home In The News Pediatrics Lancet Retracts 1998 Paper Linking Autism to MMR Vaccination
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Lancet Retracts 1998 Paper Linking Autism to MMR Vaccination PDF Print E-mail
Posted by Dr. Johanne Perez M.D   
Friday, 12 February 2010 16:20
Physician's First Watch for February 3, 2010
David G. Fairchild, MD, MPH, Editor-in-Chief

The Lancet has "fully" retracted a paper it published in 1998 that suggested a link between measles-mumps-rubella vaccination and the subsequent development of autism.


News ImageThe journal's editors point to a recent judgment by a panel of the U.K.'s General Medical Council, saying that "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."

The editors say that two claims in the paper "have been proven to be false." Contrary to the authors' claims, the patients studied were not consecutively referred, and the local ethics committee had not approved the investigations. The editors conclude: "Therefore we fully retract this paper from the published record."

Asked to comment on the journal's action, Dr. Andrew Wakefield sent the following statement: "The allegations against me and against my colleagues are both unfounded and unjust and I invite anyone to examine the contents of these proceedings and come to their own conclusion."

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