MMR and Autism

I'm definitely not the conspiracy theory type but I also like to think I'm not the "take their word for it" type either. With that said, after listening to a few radio shows and doing a bit of reading about the debate over the MMR vaccine and a possible link to autism I came away thinking that the evidence was questionable and that Jim Carrey and company were mistaken.

Today after 12 years of controversy, the medical journal Lancet which first published a study linking MMR to autism retracted the study.

From NPR...

Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the lead investigator, brought international attention to the paper by saying he thought the MMR vaccinations were to blame. The assertions chipped away at confidence in vaccination.

It later emerged that Wakefield had been taking money from a lawyer suing vaccine makers. The results of his study couldn't be replicated. Most of Wakefield's co-authors later retracted the paper's interpretation of the data. The Lancet backed away from the paper in 2004, but defended its publication on the grounds it helped "raise new ideas."

In the retraction today, the Lancet editors wrote that it became clear parts of the paper are "incorrect." What was the last straw for the Lancet? An investigation by the U.K.'s General Medical Council, which regulates doctors, found that Wakefield had acted dishonestly and irresponsibly.