Original Link Between MMR and Autism Based on False Data
An investigation by the Sunday Times has concluded that Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who first reported a link between autism and the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine, altered and misrepresented data to indicate that result.
Dr. Wakefield’s research was presented in an article in The Lancet medical journal in February of 1998. This article claimed that 8 of 12 “previously normal” children who received the MMR vaccine displayed “behavioural symptoms” within weeks of their vaccinations.
However, according to interviews with witnesses and previously inaccessible documents and medical records, many of the 12 children involved with Wakefield’s study displayed symptoms of autism before they received their vaccination.
