Medical journal brands autism-vaccine researcher a ‘fraud’

DR ANDREW Wakefield, the-now disgraced doctor who published studies linking vaccines with autism, committed an “elaborate fraud” by faking data, the British Medical Journal has said.

The journal’s editors said it was not possible Wakefield made a mistake but must have falsified the data for his study, which convinced thousands of parents that vaccines are dangerous and which is blamed for ongoing outbreaks of measles and mumps.

The journal, commonly nicknamed the BMJ, supported its position with a series of articles by a journalist who used medical records and interviews to show that Wakefield falsified data.