A study published in the late '90s by the British medical journal, the Lancet, was possibly the starting point for much controversy surrounding the Measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism. Still today, the debate rages on and concerned parents avoid or delay giving their children the vaccine in order to avoid possibly exposing their child to any risk of autism. Now, however, the Lancet has retracted the study as flawed after an independent council investigated and reported on several of the researchers involved. According to the Wall Street Journal, "The General Medical Council's report on three of the researchers, including Dr. Wakefield, found evidence that some of their actions were conducted for experimental purposes, not clinical care, and without ethics approval. The report also found that Dr. Wakefield drew blood for research purposes from children at his son's birthday party, paying each child £5 (about $8)."
Toddlers on track with the recommended schedule of immunizations can have the MMR between 12-15 months of age with a second dose around 4 years of age. Are you following this schedule with your child or has the scare of autism exposure altered your plans? And now, does this retraction change your mind or do you still feel there's a link?
Learn more about vaccines, autism and the study's retraction:
Sounds like the drug companies went after these guys to try to discredit them. These sound like a few poor choices, but I did not see any evidence that their work was flawed, just that they might be.
Anyone ever see a flawed politician still do a good job (at least until they were caught).
Read this: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584650,00.html The full story is gone. too bad; it was good.
It was more comprehensive. And it showed that for a journal like The Lancet to retract a study is to put its reputation on the line and it wouldn’t do so lightly. Dr. Wakefield didn’t conduct his research properly, therefore, his study was flawed. Therefore, thousands of babies didn’t receive a vaccine they should have and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children have gotten that measles that should not have.
This is huge. This is a big deal. Will everyone listen? Will they listen like they listened to Jenny McCarthy? I don’t know. The Lancet people probably won’t go on Oprah with such passion; but they should.
Have you actually read what his “research” was, how he experimented on 12 kids, performing inherently dangerous procedures like lumbar punctures? And his statements about MMR and autism wasn’t based on his research anyway. Read the full story of the science and research on the Bad Science blog. And, ironically, having measles is one of the known causes of autism, so not having the vaccination for fear of it, increases the likelihood anyway.
Anyone who doesn’t get their kids vaccinated are irresponsible. Not only do they put their own kids at risk, they put others at risk and raise the chances of an outbreak. That’s how the outbreaks happen, kids who aren’t vaccinated catch it and spread it to others who aren’t vaccinated and/or have weakened immune systems.