The Times of London has reported allegations that Andrew Wakefield submitted false information for his landmark 1998 study linking vaccines to autism.
Paper Questions Elements of Study In 1998, a study published in the medical journal The Lancet linked the measles, mumps rubella vaccine to autism. The study, which was based on 12 children, led many parents to forego vaccination to protect their children from autism, and over the last decade, the prevalence of measles has risen worldwide.
A story published Sunday in the Times of London claims, “In most of the 12 cases, the children’s ailments as described in The Lancet were different from their hospital and GP records.” The article also says several parents raised concerns about their children before getting the MMR vaccine.
The paper’s findings are confirmed by evidence the General Medical Council has heard. The council is investigating Wakefield and two of his colleagues for misconduct allegedly related to “ethical aspects” of the study, but not its findings.
In a written statement, Wakefield said the Times approached him with allegations of wrongdoing two days before the piece ran. He denied the allegations. “The reporting of the children in the Lancet paper is an accurate account of the clinical histories as reported to Professor Walker-Smith and his clinical colleagues,” Wakefield wrote.
Given the parents’ descriptions of the children and the link between measles and brain damage, Wakefield wrote, “there was and continues to be every reasonable basis for suspecting a possible link between MMR vaccination and autistic regression.”
Brian Deer, the author of the Times piece, has a long history investigating Wakefield. Since 2004 Deer has published multiple stories about the MMR–autism link.
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