Autism Study Altered Facts, Report Says

An influential study that linked a childhood vaccine to autism was based on altered information, a new report says. The Sunday Times and the British Medical Journal published the article this week. The journal called the autism study “an elaborate fraud.” It laid the blame on lead author Andrew Wakefield. The original study was published in 1998. It said that 12 children began showing autism symptoms after receiving the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Since then, many parents have refused the vaccine. But the study has been widely condemned for lapses in research and ethics standards. The journal Lancet and 10 of the 13 authors have renounced the results. Wakefield was banned last year from practicing medicine in the United Kingdom. The report published this week went further. Journalist Andrew Deer talked to the children’s parents and examined hospital records.