February 2, 2010

experts react to the retraction of Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 Lancet paper

The Lancet has retracted Andrew Wakefield’s original 1998 paper which claimed to show a link between the MMR vaccine and autism in children, and has since been comprehensively disproved.

Prof Terence Stephenson, President, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), said:

“Measles, mumps and rubella vaccines have all been shown to be safe and UK families are fortunate to have free access to these, which is not true of many parts of the world. The false suggestion of a link between autism and the MMR vaccine has done untold damage to the UK vaccination programme.

“The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health hopes the withdrawal of this publication on scientific grounds helps improve uptake of the MMR vaccine for the UK’s children.”

Dr David Elliman, Consultant In Community Child Health, Great Ormond Street Hospital For Children, said:

“I feel this is a very reasonable decision. To be fair to the Lancet, they did publish a commentary at the time urging caution that wasn’t picked up. I think the reality of the world today is that academic papers on major public health issues do not remain the property of academia. Therefore it is incumbent on us all in science, in journals and in the media to be very certain of the strength of a study before rushing to publish, and to be aware of the potential effects.”

Dr Michael Fitzpatrick, GP and author of two books on autism and the MMR scare, said:

“Good news – only ten years late!”

Prof Adam Finn, Professor Of Paediatrics at University of Bristol Medical School, said:

“This is not before time. Let’s hope this will do something to re-establish the good reputation of this excellent vaccine. And I hope the country can now draw a line under this particular health scare and move onto new opportunities for vaccination.”