Medical journal retracts study linking autism to vaccine

…(CNN) — The medical journal The Lancet on Tuesday retracted a controversial 1998 paper that linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism.

The study subsequently had been discredited, and last week, the lead author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, was found to have acted unethically in conducting the research.

The General Medical Council, which oversees doctors in Britain, said that “there was a biased selection of patients in The Lancet paper” and that his “conduct in this regard was dishonest and irresponsible.”

The panel found that Wakefield subjected some children in the study to various invasive medical procedures such as colonoscopies and MRI scans. He also paid children at his son’s birthday party to have blood drawn for research purposes, an act that “showed a callous disregard” for the “distress and pain” of the children, the panel said….

“The mere publishing of this paper created something that will never fully go way: the false notion that MMR caused autism,” said Dr. Paul Offit, author of “Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure,” and the chief of division of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia…

…The Lancet came under criticism for the initial publication of the paper 12 years ago.

Autism Cases on the Rise Study Shows Increase Is Real, Not Just Due to Changes in Diagnosis Criteria article pertinent portion:

Many researchers have believed that the continuous increase in autism cases over the last decade — particularly the huge increase seen in California — isn’t real, but can be explained by “artifacts.”…

…Jan. 8, 2009 — Environmental factors may be partly behind California’s eightfold rise in new cases, a new study implies…

…But even taken together, they don’t explain even half of the huge increase in cases. “When you put it all together, this doesn’t come close to explaining the increases in the last 10 years,” Hertz-Picciotto tells WebMD. “The more you whittle away at this increase, the more you have to say that what is left over is real. … Given that autism cases keep going up, and can’t be fully explained by artifacts, environmental factors deserve serious consideration.”…

Yet questions remain. Coincidence? Doubtful!