---
title: "Lancet MMR vaccine-autism report"
chunk: 1/6
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:18:00.602839+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

On 28 February 1998, a fraudulent research paper primarily authored by physician Andrew Wakefield, along with twelve other coauthors (titled "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children"), was published in The Lancet, a British medical journal. The paper falsely claimed causative links between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and colitis, and between colitis and autism. The fraud involved data bias and manipulation, and two undisclosed conflicts of interest. It was exposed in a lengthy Sunday Times investigation by reporter Brian Deer, resulting in the paper's retraction in February 2010 and Wakefield's being discredited and struck off the UK medical register three months later. In the paper, Wakefield fabricated evidence to suggest a new "syndrome" existed, which he called "autistic enterocolitis". Wakefield had been employed by a lawyer representing parents in lawsuits against vaccine producers, and had reportedly earned up to US$43 million per year selling diagnostic kits for the non-existent syndrome he claimed to have discovered. He also held a patent to a rival measles vaccine at the time.
The scientific consensus on vaccines and autism is that there is no connection between MMR (or any other vaccine) and autism.

== 1998 The Lancet paper ==
In February 1998, a group led by Andrew Wakefield published a paper in the British medical journal The Lancet, supported by a press conference at the Royal Free Hospital in London, where the research was carried out. This paper reported on twelve children with developmental disorders referred to the hospital and described a constellation of bowel symptoms, as well as endoscopy and biopsy findings, that were said to be evidence of a new "syndrome" that Wakefield would later call "autistic enterocolitis". The paper described MMR vaccination as the "apparent precipitating event", tabulated the parents of eight of the twelve children as linking their developmental symptoms with MMR vaccination, suggested the connection between autism and the gastrointestinal pathologies was "real", and called for further research. But it admitted that the research did not "prove" an association between the MMR vaccine and autism.
At a press conference accompanying the paper's publication, later criticized as "science by press conference", Wakefield said that he thought it prudent to use single vaccines instead of the MMR triple vaccine until this could be ruled out as an environmental trigger. Wakefield said, "I can't support the continued use of these three vaccines given in combination until this issue has been resolved." In a video news release issued by the hospital to broadcasters in advance of the press conference, he called for MMR vaccine to be "suspended in favour of the single vaccines". In a BBC interview, Wakefield's mentor, Roy Pounder, who was not a coauthor, "admitted the study was controversial". He added: "In hindsight it may be a better solution to give the vaccinations separately ... When the vaccinations were given individually there was no problem." These suggestions were supported neither by Wakefield's coauthors nor any scientific evidence.
British television coverage of the press conference was intense, but press interest was mixed. The Guardian and the Independent reported it on their front pages, while the Daily Mail only gave the story a minor mention in the middle of the paper, and the Sun did not cover it.

== Controversy over MMR ==