Monday, Mar. 15, 2004
Do Vaccines Cause Autism?
By Alice Park
British researchers caused a furor in 1998 when they published a controversial report suggesting a link between the growing number of autism cases and the standard childhood vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). Although other physicians criticized the authors for jumping to conclusions, many worried parents stopped immunizing their children. Now 10 of the 13 original authors have decided to retract the paper, acknowledging that their data were not strong enough to support their incendiary conclusion. --A.P.