Lancet retracts controversial MMR paper

The Lancet's decision to formally retract Dr Andrew Wakefield's controversial paper linking the MMR vaccine to autism should be the final nail in the coffin for the long-running debate, an Australian expert says. Last week the journal retracted the 1998 paper, which at the time sparked panic among patients and saw immunisation rates plummet in the UK. The decision came after a UK General Medical Council hearing into Dr Wakefield's fitness to practise found he and two colleagues had presented research in a dishonest and irresponsible way and had acted with callous disregard to the children involved in the study. In a statement, the Lancet editors said that following the hearing it became clear several elements of the paper were incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation in 2004. "In particular, the claims in the original paper that children were 'consecutively referred' and that investigations were 'approved' by the local ethics committee have been proven false," the statement said. Dr Julie Leask, senior research fellow at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance in Sydney, said it was possible the latest publicity could create doubt about the vaccine in the minds of some new parents, who were unfamiliar with the issue. "[But] in a sense I think the public were going cold on it. [They] were starting to see it as an old concern that had been disproven," she said....