Vaccine scares are inevitable and we need to plan accordingly
Twelve years after The Lancet published the study by Wakefield and colleagues1 that suggested a link between measles–mumps–rubella (MMR) vaccination, inflammatory bowel disease and autism, the journal has fully retracted the article. The retraction followed the findings of the Fitness to Practise Panel of the UK General Medical Council, released 28 January 2010, that certain statements in the article were false — namely, that children were “consecutively referred” and that investigations were “approved” by the local ethics committee.2
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Julie Leask is involved in an influenza vaccination study which receives support from Sanofi Pasteur. Peter McIntyre receives support from GlaxoSmithKline and Wyeth for National Health and Medical Research Council clinical trials. Robert Booy occasionally receives funding from CSL, Roche, sanofi-aventis, GlaxoSmithKline and Wyeth for clinical trials, and to attend and present at scientific meetings. Any funding he receives is directed to a research account at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and is not personally accepted by him.