Friday, January 7, 2011

Scholarly Journals, Vaccines, and & Andrew Wakefield

The year 2011 has already gotten off to an interesting start, especially in the area of scholarly journal publications.

Andrew Wakefield, a medical researcher, published a famous study in 1997 in which he claimed he had found a connection between the administration of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) and the development of autism in children. This study was published in the famous British medical journal, the Lancet. It caused a huge stir worldwide and led to countless numbers of unvaccinated children.

The Lancet has retracted the study. Andrew Wakefield has been investigated by journalists and medical boards and found to have committed fraudulent actions when performing the study. No other scientists have been able to replicate any of his data, thus suggesting that his study was incorrect and there is no connection between MMR vaccine and autism.

You can read more about this here and here.

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