From Medscape Medical News > Psychiatry

Autism and MMR Vaccine Study an 'Elaborate Fraud,' Charges BMJ

Deborah Brauser

January 6, 2011 — BMJ is publishing a series of 3 articles and editorials charging that the study published in The Lancet in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues linking the childhood measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine to a "new syndrome" of regressive autism and bowel disease was not just bad science but "an elaborate fraud."

According to the first article published in BMJ today by London-based investigative reporter Brian Deer, the study's investigators altered and falsified medical records and facts, misrepresented information to families, and treated the 12 children involved unethically.

In addition, Mr. Wakefield accepted consultancy fees from lawyers who were building a lawsuit against vaccine manufacturers, and many of the study participants were referred by an antivaccine organization.

Read more:www.medscape.com/viewarticle/735354

Wakefield paper declared fraudulent.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has accused Dr. Andrew Wakefield of fraud. In 1998, The Lancet published a paper -- spearheaded by Wakefield -- which suggested that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine might be linked to autism. The paper didn't declare that cause-and-effect had been demonstrated, but at the press conference announcing its publication, Wakefield attacked the triple vaccine; and he has continued to do so ever since. Last year, The Lancet retracted Wakefield's paper http://www.autism-watch.org/news/lancet.shtml  and the British Medical Council concluded that Wakefield acted dishonestly and irresponsibly and struck him from its register (the equivalent of license revocation in the United States). http://www.casewatch.org/foreign/wakefield/sanction.shtml

The BMJ plans to publish three articles by Brian Deer, the investigative reporter who uncovered Wakefield's misconduct. In an accompanying blog, Deer summarized his findings this way:

"The British Medical Journal has begun a series that will bare the MMR scandal in detail never published before. Drawing on interviews, documents, and properly obtained data collected during seven years of inquiries, we show how one man, former gastroenterology researcher Andrew Wakefield, was able to manufacture the appearance of a purported medical syndrome, whilst not only in receipt of large sums of money, but also scheming businesses that promised him more. His was a fraud, moreover, of more than academic vanity. It unleashed fear, parental guilt, costly government intervention, and outbreaks of infectious disease." [Deer B. Piltdown medicine: The missing link between MMR and autism. BMJ Group Blogs, Jan 6, 2011] http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2011/01/06/brian-deer-piltdown-medicine-the-missing-link-between-mmr-and-autism/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bmj/blogs+(Latest+BMJ+blogs)&q=w_bmj_podblog

The first of Deer's three articles details how he examined the medical records and interviewed the parents of the 12 children used in Wakefield's study and found that all of the cases reported in the 1998 Lancet paper were misrepresented. [Deer B. How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed. BMJ 342:c5347, 2011] http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c5347

In an accompanying editorial, three of the BMJ's top editors wrote:

"The Lancet paper has of course been retracted, but for far narrower misconduct than is now apparent. The retraction statement cites the GMC's findings that the patients were not consecutively referred and the study did not have ethical approval, leaving the door open for those who want to continue to believe that the science, flawed though it always was, still stands. We hope that declaring the paper a fraud will close that door for good." [Godlee F and others. Wakefield's article linking MMR vaccine and autism was fraudulent: Clear evidence of falsification should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare. BMJ 342:c7452, 2011] http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452.full