LONDON — The first study to link a childhood vaccine to autism was based on doctored information, according to a new report on the widely discredited research.
The conclusions of the 1998 paper were renounced by 10 of its 13 authors and later retracted by the medical journal Lancet, where it was published. Still, the suggestion the MMR shot was connected to autism spooked parents worldwide and immunization rates for measles, mumps, and rubella have never fully recovered.
By comparing the reported diagnoses in the paper to hospital records, a new examination found that Andrew Wakefield and colleagues altered facts about patients in their study.
The analysis, by British journalist Brian Deer, found that despite the claim in Wakefield’s paper that the 12 children studied were normal until they had the MMR shot, five had previously documented developmental problems. Deer also found that all the cases were somehow misrepresented when he compared data from medical records and parents.
Wakefield could not be reached for comment.
He now lives in the United States, where he enjoys a vocal following including celebrity supporters like Jenny McCarthy.
Waiting for Twitter to feed in the latest...