Medical Journal Retracts Study

Denise Myshko

It’s about time. The Lancet on Tuesday retracted its infamous study linking the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine to autism.
That study, published in 1998, unleashed a decade’s worth of controversy about the risks and benefits of childhood vaccines.

But several studies that looked at vaccine use and changes in autism frequency did not reach the same conclusion. And a 2004 scientific review by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that there is no link between autism and the MMR vaccine and there is no link between autism and vaccines that contain thimerosal as a preservative.

Still, that hasn’t prevented some parent advocacy groups and high-profile celebrities from using that single study from 1998 to launch a campaign against the use of vaccines, claiming vaccines have injured their children.

Before vaccines, every year, measles would infect 4 million American children and kill 3,000; diphtheria would kill 15,000 people; rubella would cause 20,000 babies to be born blind, deaf, or mentally handicapped; and pertussis would kill 8,000 children, most of whom were less than one year old.

Since the publication of that 1998 study, the percentage of children who were not vaccinated in the United States rose from 0.77% in 1997 to 2.1% in 2000. That may not seem all that much, but consider that although the Centers for Disease Control declared the United States cleared of measles in 2000, there was a outbreak of the disease in 2008. At least 131 cases were reported to the CDC, and 11% of the cases were hospitalized. A handful of children in Britain died from the measles around the time of the U.S. outbreak.

The Lancet’s retraction, however, is unlikely to sway the antivaccine groups. The retraction was based on ethics charges against the lead researcher, Dr. Andrew Wakefield. Dr. Wakefield’s supporters are likely to point to anecdotal cases as proof of his theories and suggest — even with the evidence from the IOM and CDC — that science hasn’t disproved his initial study.

This is not to discount the struggles these parents face raising autistic children. Certainly, their need to find someone to blame is understandable. But the truth is that scientists don’t really know what causes autism, although it’s likely that both genetics and environment play a role.