Editorial writers at the Wall Street Journal hail the recent court rulings that dismiss allegations of a link between vaccines and autism in children. An excerpt:

The rulings follow the same court’s judgment last year against claims that measles-mumps-rubella shots in combination with other thimerosal-containing vaccines cause autism. And they reinforce many comprehensive scientific studies, including one from the Institute of Medicine, that have ruled out any causal link.

Autism is a frightening diagnosis that puts enormous burdens on families, but blaming vaccines without evidence only harms other families who might be frightened enough not to immunize their children. The fate of children with autism would be far better served if the activists who have devoted their resources to lawsuits would support research to discover its true causes, and to helping those children realize their full human potential.

From the Los Angeles Times, AP/Wall Street Journal:

A special federal court ruled Friday that the vaccine additive thimerosal does not cause autism. The ruling, which came in three separate cases, follows a parallel ruling in 2009 that autism is not caused by the combination of thimerosal with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Experts said the rulings would likely be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, as the earlier ruling has been.

More than 5,300 parents have filed claims seeking damages because they believe vaccines caused autism in their children. The court, a branch of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, expressed sympathy for the families but concluded that they had failed to prove their case.

From the [UK] Times, [UK] Guardian, Austin [TX] American-Statesman (blog):

Andrew Wakefield, the discredited British doctor whose research triggered a wave of opposition to childhood vaccines, has resigned unexpectedly from the autism center he founded in Austin, Texas.

The announcement comes only a few weeks after a British regulatory agency ruled that Wakefield acted dishonestly and irresponsibly in research that led to the 1998 publication of a paper which claimed a link between autism and the vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella.

Wakefield is now defending his medical license in England, and does not have a license to practice medicine in the United States. In a statement, representatives of the Thoughtful House Center for Children said Wakefield had left his post voluntarily to avoid allowing the controversy to overshadow the center’s work.

Related posts here.

The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal says the Lancet’s retraction of Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 vaccine study comes “about 12 years too late.” The research paper, which purported to link vaccines with autism, launched a global vaccine scare, caused vaccination rates to plummet, and triggered waves of measles outbreaks.

Even as overwhelming scientific evidence showed vaccines to be safe, the editors say, the respected research journal turned aside questions about the credibility of Wakefield’s study. It was only after Britain’s medical regulator confirmed that Wakefield had acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” that the Lancet said it “fully retract[s] this paper from the published record.”

The Lancet episode shows how even reputable publications can become conduits for junk science when political causes run hot. Especially amid the scandal over politically motivated climate science, the public needs professional journals to be scrupulous about their standards and honest about the science.

From the [UK] Times,  [UK] Guardian, BBC, [UK] Telegraph:

A leading medical journal has retracted a discredited research paper that sparked an international health crisis by claiming a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Lancet’s announcement follows a finding by a British oversight panel that Andrew Wakefield (above), the lead author of the 1998 paper, had been irresponsible and dishonest in carrying out the study.

Lancet editor Richard Horton told the [UK] Guardian that the finding by Britain’s General Medical Council (GMC) last week had prompted the journal’s decision. “It was utterly clear, without any ambiguity at all, that the statements in the paper were utterly false,” he said. “I feel I was deceived.”

Wakefield’s research prompted a significant drop in the number of children who were immunized for mumps, measles and rubella, contributing to a resurgence of measles cases in Britain.

Wakefield moved across the Atlantic to Austin, Texas, five years ago to help establish an autism clinic shortly before the GMC investigation began. Wakefield, who does not have a medical license in the United States, says he is not practicing medicine but rather working on research as executive director of the Thoughtful House autism center. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Related articles:

MMR scare doctor makes a fortune in U.S. — [UK] Times

‘Callous, unethical and dishonest’: Dr. Andrew Wakefield — by Brian Deer in the [UK] Sunday Times

Earlier posts:

Doctor censured over research claiming autism-vaccine link

Newspaper: Autism-vaccine scare began when researcher faked data

(Photo from [UK] Guardian)

British panel says he acted ‘dishonestly and irresponsibly’

From the BBC, [UK] Times, AP/San Jose Mercury-News:

A British doctor whose research stoked fears that vaccinations cause autism has been censured by a medical panel, which found that he had “abused his position of trust” in doing the research. Research published by Dr. Andrew Wakefield in the Lancet medical journal led many parents to refuse to vaccinate their children.

Britain’s General Medical Council found Wakefield guilty of a series of misconduct charges, including putting children through painful and unnecessary tests.

The disciplinary panel said Wakefield was misleading in describing the study, and should have disclosed that he was being paid to advise parents who believed their children had been harmed by the vaccine. Ten of the study’s 13 authors have renounced the study.

Wakefield has denied all charges.

See also:

How MMR saga shaped science’s rules of engagement with the media. Fiona Fox, writing in the [UK] Times, says the scientific community should have raised a concerted voice to counter erroneous claims that children had been damaged by vaccines. The consequences for silence have been catastrophic, she says, as a fearful public withheld vaccinations from their children.

Los Angeles Times media columnist James Rainey says public criticism of journalist Amy Wallace reflects an increasing rejection of professional authority and journalistic expertise. Wallace wrote a recent piece in Wired Magazine debunking the idea that vaccines cause autism, sparking angry rebuttals by activists.

An excerpt:

Wallace has run smack into an abiding, perhaps growing, phenomenon of the Internet Age: Citizens armed with information are sure they know better. Readers who brush up against expertise believe they have become experts. The common man rebels against the notion that anyone — not professionals, not the government and certainly not the media — speaks with special authority.

Wallace, who spent more than three months interviewing dozens of people for a 7,000-word piece and cites epidemiological studies to support her assertions, faced accusations that she was naive, ignorant, un-American or a shill for the pharmaceutical companies.

… “It’s great that people can find out more than they ever could before,” Wallace said. “But it seems it will make trusting in experts even more important. More than ever now, we need help sifting through the torrent.”

See also:

“Readers Respond to ‘An Epidemic of Fear”—Wired

A Short History of Vaccine Panic—Wired