Research fraud catalyzed the anti-vaccination
movement.
Let’s not repeat history.
By Julia @voxmedia.com Mar 5, 2019, 12:06pm EST
Two decades ago, an esteemed medical journal published a small study that has become one of the most
notorious and damaging pieces of research in medicine.
The study, led by the now discredited physician-researcher Andrew Wakefield, involved 12 children and
suggested there’s a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine — which is administered to
millions of children around the world each year — and autism.
The study was subsequently thoroughly debunked. The Lancet retracted the paper and Wakefield was
stripped of his medical license. Autism researchers have shown decisively again and again that the
developmental disorder is not caused by vaccines.
Still, public health experts say the false data and erroneous conclusions in that paper, while rejected in the
scientific world, helped fuel a dangerous movement of vaccine skepticism and refusal around the world.
Since its publication, measles outbreaks have erupted in Europe, Australia, and the US in communities where
people refuse or fear vaccines. Vaccine refusal has become such a problem that some countries in Europe are
now cracking down, making vaccines mandatory for children and fining parents who reject them. In 2019, the
World Health Organization called vaccine hesitancy one of the top threats to global health. (…)
The first thing to know about Wakefield’s paper is that it was very dubious science. (…)
Wakefield drew the association between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism based on a
study involving only 12 children. (…)
Many children have autism and nearly all take the MMR vaccine. Finding in this case that among a group of a
dozen children most of them happen to have both is not at all surprising.
And it in no way proves the MMR vaccine causes autism. (…)
What’s more, when British investigative journalist Brian Deer followed up with the families of each of the 12
kids in the study, he found (…) Wakefield, the lead author of the original report, manipulated his data.
Wakefield also had major financial conflicts of interest. Among them, while he was discrediting the combination
MMR vaccine and suggesting parents should give their children single shots over a longer period of time, he
was conveniently filing patents for single-disease vaccines.
Finally, Wakefield never replicated his findings. At the very bedrock of science is the concept of [replication]: A
scientist runs a test, gathers his findings, and tries to disprove himself by replicating his experiment in other
contexts. Only when that’s done can he know that his findings were true.
In 2004, 10 of his co-authors on the original paper retracted it, but Wakefield didn’t join them, and he has since
continued to push his views, including doing the rounds on the anti-vaxxer speakers’ circuit and publishing
books. In the most recent analysis, [on] more than 600,000 children born in Denmark between 1999 to 2010.
[the researchers concluded] that MMR vaccination does not increase the risk for autism, does not trigger
autism in susceptible children, and is not associated with clustering of autism cases after vaccination,”. (…)
All together, the idea that the MMR vaccine may cause autism has been debunked by largescale studies
involving thousands of participants in several countries.
Questions to help you understand
a. Identify place and time to gain a sense of context: Where? When?
b. Focus on the people involved: who? (names, characterizations, roles)
c. What happened initially? What is said about Wakefield’s work?
d. Focus on the reasons: Why was the research considered fraudulent?
e. Focus on the consequences: What did this publication result in?
movement.
Let’s not repeat history.
By Julia @voxmedia.com Mar 5, 2019, 12:06pm EST
Two decades ago, an esteemed medical journal published a small study that has become one of the most
notorious and damaging pieces of research in medicine.
The study, led by the now discredited physician-researcher Andrew Wakefield, involved 12 children and
suggested there’s a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine — which is administered to
millions of children around the world each year — and autism.
The study was subsequently thoroughly debunked. The Lancet retracted the paper and Wakefield was
stripped of his medical license. Autism researchers have shown decisively again and again that the
developmental disorder is not caused by vaccines.
Still, public health experts say the false data and erroneous conclusions in that paper, while rejected in the
scientific world, helped fuel a dangerous movement of vaccine skepticism and refusal around the world.
Since its publication, measles outbreaks have erupted in Europe, Australia, and the US in communities where
people refuse or fear vaccines. Vaccine refusal has become such a problem that some countries in Europe are
now cracking down, making vaccines mandatory for children and fining parents who reject them. In 2019, the
World Health Organization called vaccine hesitancy one of the top threats to global health. (…)
The first thing to know about Wakefield’s paper is that it was very dubious science. (…)
Wakefield drew the association between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism based on a
study involving only 12 children. (…)
Many children have autism and nearly all take the MMR vaccine. Finding in this case that among a group of a
dozen children most of them happen to have both is not at all surprising.
And it in no way proves the MMR vaccine causes autism. (…)
What’s more, when British investigative journalist Brian Deer followed up with the families of each of the 12
kids in the study, he found (…) Wakefield, the lead author of the original report, manipulated his data.
Wakefield also had major financial conflicts of interest. Among them, while he was discrediting the combination
MMR vaccine and suggesting parents should give their children single shots over a longer period of time, he
was conveniently filing patents for single-disease vaccines.
Finally, Wakefield never replicated his findings. At the very bedrock of science is the concept of [replication]: A
scientist runs a test, gathers his findings, and tries to disprove himself by replicating his experiment in other
contexts. Only when that’s done can he know that his findings were true.
In 2004, 10 of his co-authors on the original paper retracted it, but Wakefield didn’t join them, and he has since
continued to push his views, including doing the rounds on the anti-vaxxer speakers’ circuit and publishing
books. In the most recent analysis, [on] more than 600,000 children born in Denmark between 1999 to 2010.
[the researchers concluded] that MMR vaccination does not increase the risk for autism, does not trigger
autism in susceptible children, and is not associated with clustering of autism cases after vaccination,”. (…)
All together, the idea that the MMR vaccine may cause autism has been debunked by largescale studies
involving thousands of participants in several countries.
Questions to help you understand
a. Identify place and time to gain a sense of context: Where? When?
b. Focus on the people involved: who? (names, characterizations, roles)
c. What happened initially? What is said about Wakefield’s work?
d. Focus on the reasons: Why was the research considered fraudulent?
e. Focus on the consequences: What did this publication result in?
