A widely-cited British study claiming to show a link between the childhood MMR vaccine and autism has been shown to be “an elaborate fraud.” The science wasn’t just bad, it was made up.

A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an “elaborate fraud” that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.
An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study’s author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study — and that there was “no doubt” Wakefield was responsible.

I just had a kid a few months ago, and it’s absolutely amazing how far and wide this toxic bullshit has spread. In getting ready to have the baby, we would run into friends and acquaintances who “weren’t sure” or thought they should be “better safe than sorry,” etc. Perfectly reasonable, well-educated, thoughtful people had started to question protecting their children from serious, deadly diseases based on the lies of this guy and others (I’m looking at you, Jenny McCarthy).

Vaccination rates dropped sharply in Britain after [the study’s] publication, falling as low as 80% by 2004. Measles cases have gone up sharply in the ensuing years.

Children are dying. Can we finally, please, put this matter to rest? There is not now, nor has there ever been, one single shred of evidence that vaccines cause autism. Tell your friends, and vaccinate your babies.

The BMJ has the full story of how the fraud was uncovered.

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7 replies on “Study Showing Link Between Autism and Vaccines “An Elaborate Fraud””

  2. the scary thing is once vaccination rates drop below a certain point, ‘herd immunity’ goes away and people who were never vaccinated will start dying, adults and children.

  4. But, as anyone who follows kooks know, you can’t keep a good conspiracy down.
    All this will be proof of how far and wide the big ‘con’ goes. They’re all in on it, don’t you know.
    It’s also so much more comforting to believe that big government and evil pharma have colluded to create autism than it is to believe it could be some other causal factor (ill-advised natal practices, bad genetics, etc…).
    It’s all about what people want to believe.

  5. Thanks for discussing this issue. The Wakefield theory- that a the MMR vaccine might lead to autism, is only one of the possible connections between autism and vaccines that cause reasonable parents to wonder about vaccines safety. All parents are warned that there is a small but real risk with all vaccines. It is clearly stated on the package inserts. For every million vaccines given, a certain number of children have extreme reactions, including neurological effects and death. In fact a child just recently died after getting a routine DTaP shot, and the US GOVERNMENT ruled that the vaccine was the cause. (See http://www.rescuepost.com/files/lord-tembe… )

    The other major theory is that a mercury preservative in vaccines called thimerosal (no, it was not removed from all vaccines, it’s still in most flu vaccines and several others) is known to have toxic neurological effects. You could not even throw this stuff in a regular landfill- it is considered toxic waste.

    Although many people think that the research has been done and the scientific questions have been answered, this site illustrates the weakness of the studies on the vaccine/autism connection: http://www.fourteenstudies.com

    Thanks for keeping an open mind!

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