Journal Retracts Study That Vaccines Cause Autism

The Lancet has formally retracted a report published 12 years ago that claimed to prove that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine causes autism. The British medical journal’s action comes less than a week after U.K. General Medical Council's Fitness to Practice Panel concluded that the report’s author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, provided false information and acted with “callous disregard” for the children in his study. The council is now deciding whether to find Wakefield guilty of serious professional misconduct, which would strip him of his medical license. Wakefield’s study led to a sharp drop in the number of parents vaccinating their kids, and a resurgence of measles in the U.K. and U.S.