Lancet withdraws study linking MMR vaccine to autism
THE LANCET has officially withdrawn a 1998 study linking autism with the MMR vaccine that led to a major backlash against the vaccine in the UK. The move follows the findings of a General Medical Council (GMC) disciplinary panel that found the paper’s lead author, Dr Andrew Wakefield, to be dishonest and irresponsible, and said he brought the medical profession into disrepute. Dr Wakefield, at the time a gastroenterologist at the Royal Free Hospital, London, told a press conference at the study’s release that single vaccines would be preferable to the triple vaccine. The research ...