The controversial theory that childhood vaccines cause autism was discredited by one report after another this year. The biggest blow came with the public retraction of a 1998 paper in the British medical journal The Lancet that had suggested a link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism in a study of 12 children. Despite questions at the time concerning its scientific credibility, the report garnered a blizzard of press coverage and led some parents to put off vaccinating their young children.
In February Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, said that the work was “flawed” and should never have been published. More reports followed. In May an expert panel at the Washington-based Institute of Medicine announced that neither the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine nor the mercury-based vaccine preservative thimerosal is associated with autism. The panel based its finding on expert testimony, published papers, and ongoing and completed research—including epidemiological studies in the ...
