BMJ: Study Linking Vaccine to Autism Used Faulty Data
A 1998 study linking vaccines to autism was based on fraudulent data and has caused widespread damage to public health, according to a new report published in the British Medical Journal. For the report, journalist Brian Deer compared the study subjects' hospital records with reported diagnoses and found that researchers had altered patient data. David Amaral, a research director at UC-Davis, said the "most destructive" result of the study is that it undermined the "public's confidence in the integrity of science."
- "Journal: Study Linking Vaccine To Autism Was Fraud" (AP/NPR, 1/5).
- "Wakefield's Paper Linking MMR Vaccine and Autism a Fraud on the Scale of Piltdown Man, BMJ Editorial Says" (Maugh, "Booster Shots," Los Angeles Times, 1/5).
- "Report Linking Vaccine to Autism 'Fraudulent,' Says British Medical Journal" (Salahi, ABC News, 1/5).