MMR vaccine and autism

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Claims of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism have been extensively investigated and found to be false.^[1] The link was first suggested in the early 1990s and came to public notice largely as a result of the 1998 Lancet MMR autism fraud, characterised as "perhaps the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years".^[2] The fraudulent research paper, authored by discredited former doctor Andrew Wakefield and published in The Lancet, falsely claimed the vaccine was linked to colitis and autism spectrum disorders. The paper was retracted in 2010^[3] but is still cited by anti-vaccine activists.^[4]

The claims in the paper were widely reported,^[5] leading to a sharp drop in vaccination rates in the UK and Ireland. Promotion of the claimed link, which continues in anti-vaccination propaganda despite being refuted,^[6][7] has led to an increase in the incidence of measles and mumps, resulting in deaths and serious permanent injuries.^[8][9] Following the initial claims in 1998, multiple large epidemiological studies were undertaken. Reviews of the evidence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,^[10] the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Institute of Medicine of the US National Academy of Sciences,^[11] the UK National Health Service,^[12] and the Cochrane Library^[1][13] all found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism.^[14] Physicians, medical journals, and editors^{[15][16][17][18][19]} have described Wakefield's actions as fraudulent and tied them to epidemics and deaths.^[20][21]

An investigation by journalist Brian Deer found that Wakefield, the author of the original research paper linking the vaccine to autism, had multiple undeclared conflicts of interest,^[22][23] had manipulated evidence,^[24] and had broken other ethical codes.^[which?] The Lancet paper was partially retracted in 2004 and fully retracted in 2010, when Lancet's editor-in-chief Richard Horton described it as "utterly false" and said that the journal had been deceived.^[25] Wakefield was found guilty by the General Medical Council of serious professional misconduct in May 2010 and was struck off the Medical Register, meaning he could no longer practise as a physician in the UK.^[26] In January 2011, Deer published a series of reports in the British Medical Journal,^[27][28][29] which in a signed editorial stated of the journalist, "It has taken the diligent scepticism of one man, standing outside medicine and science, to show that the paper was in fact an elaborate fraud."^[30][31] The scientific consensus is that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism and that the vaccine's benefits greatly outweigh its potential risks.