Saturday Quack – Childhood Vaccines and Autism?

Without venturing into the still-active controversy as to the relationship (or lack of one) between autism and measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination, I bring up the story of a central figure in the issue – Andrew Wakefield. Wakefield and two colleagues face professional misconduct charges in front of the British General medical Council (GMC) over their controversial research that was published in the medical journal Lancet. Specifically, they are accused of taking blood from children without their parents knowledge or permission (but with a monetary reward), and not informing the Lancet that they were conducting a parallel study for payment.

Since the original proposals of a connection between MMR and autism, several large epidemiological studies have indicated that there is no such relationship. Meanwhile, Wakefield continues to study autism and its possible relationship to gastrointestinal immunological stimuli, in Austin, Texas.