There is no evidence that vaccines cause autism.
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PARIS: Medical journal The Lancet has withdrawn a 1998 study linking autism with inoculation against three childhood illnesses, a paper that caused an uproar and an enduring backlash against vaccination.
"We fully retract this paper from the published record," The Lancet's editors said in a statement published online.
The 1998 paper suggested there might be a connection between autism and a triple vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).
Measles cases on the rise
Other experts insisted the claim was spurious, but many parents in the UK were deeply alarmed and refused to have their children vaccinated. The scare over the vaccine also occurred in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The slump has yet to fully recover today and as a result there has been a rise in measles, placing unprotected young lives at risk, say doctors.
In 2004, 10 of the paper's 13 authors distanced themselves from part of the study, publishing what they called a "retraction of an interpretation."
Medical council attacks researcher
The journal said it was acting in the light of an ethics judgement last week by the Britain's General Medical Council against Andrew Wakefield, the study's lead researcher.
In last Thursday's ruling, the General Medical Council attacked Wakefield for "unethical" research methods and for showing a "callous disregard" for the youngsters as he carried out tests.
They included invasive procedures such as spinal taps and colonoscopies for which he had not gained ethics approval, and taking blood samples from children at his son's birthday party for payments of five pounds.
Wakefield was also accused of acting in a misleading, dishonest and irresponsible way in the manner in which he presented the research.
The two-and-a-half-year hearing was one of the longest in British medical history.
"Following the judgement of the UK General Medical Council's Fitness to Practise Panel on January 28, 2010, it has become clear that several elements of the 1998 study by Wakefield et al are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation," The Lancet said.
Autism and the triple antigen vaccination
The decision to withdraw the paper appears to be politically motivated. A friend's brother became autistic after he had a bad reaction to the triple antigen vaccination. Prior to being vaccinated he was a perfectly normal child, immediately after being vaccinated he developed a high fever which left him brain damaged and unable to talk. The diagnosis was that he had become severely Autistic as a result of his reaction to the vaccination. He is now fifty years old, spent most of his life in an institution and unable to talk or walk normally. His thought processes and ability to solve problems are normal, although difficult to detect due to his inability to communicate. The quality of his life was severely diminished by the vaccine. The anguish felt by his parents and sister was almost unbearable, leaving deep psychological scars in them, which is difficult to justify in terms of a concern for the drop in profits with regard to sales of vaccinations - which is clearly the motivation for erasing this paper from the history books.
people have been shouting, but nobody listens
I too know a friend who's kid was perfectly fine right up untill he got his first shots at school. He became ill immediately after, and has not spoken a word since. Sounds like the exact same situation. And there have been so many who have been paralyzed or in some cases children have straight up died shortly after getting the flu shot.
Do a search on youtube and many people's unfortunate storys of crippling reactions to vaccinations can be found. I don't care if these cases are 'rare', people are never even told of the risks. Regardless if you want to link it to autism (which clearly in at least some cases it is), it can have a number of very real, very crippling side effects, for what?
I'll let my own immune system deal with what ever nature wants to throw at me. I've never had a shot in my life, and I'm still doing just fine thank you.
No excuse for bad science
Poor science and unethical research is not the way to show if there is a link between vaccination and autism. If all the legitamate research following the 1998 study can find no significant link between the two then we must conclude (until other evidence is provided) that there is no link.
It is easy to draw a conclusion based on a correlation, but as always, just because two events occur at a similar time the conclusion that one must therefore cause the other is not accurate.