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Tuesday, Feb 2, 2010 2:54 PM UTC
The Lancet retracts flawed autism study
Influential study that linked measles, mumps, rubella vaccine to autism disavowed
British medical journal The Lancet says it has retracted a flawed study linking the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism and bowel disease.
The Lancet published the controversial paper by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues in 1998. British parents abandoned the vaccine in droves, leading to a resurgence of measles. Subsequent studies found no proof the vaccine is connected to autism.
Ten of the study’s 13 authors renounced the study’s conclusions, and The Lancet has previously said it should never have published the research. “We fully retract this paper from the published record,” its editors said in a statement on Tuesday.
Wakefield and two colleagues face being stripped of their right to practice medicine in Britain.
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