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"After years of controversial debate over a now-retracted British report linking autism to childhood vaccines, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has called the 1998 study by Dr. Andrew Wakefield an &amp;quot;elaborate fraud.&amp;quot; Holding Wakefield responsible for the deception, the journal went so far as to say he should be charged criminally. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s one thing to have a bad study, a study full of error, and for the authors then to admit that they made errors,&amp;quot; Fiona Godlee, BMJ&amp;#039;s editor-in-chief, told CNN. &amp;quot;But in this case, we have a very different picture of what seems to be a deliberate attempt to create an impression that there was a link by falsifying the data.&amp;quot; The 1998 study caused panic amongst parents, causing many to decrease the number of vaccinations their children were getting. But as vaccinations went down, diseases like the Measles went up in both the UK and the US. Wakefield says the BMJ article&amp;#039;s author, Brian Deer has been enlisted by pharmaceutical company&amp;#039;s to take him out, arguing that his research has been distorted, according to CNN.com. But what motivation would Wakefield have had to lie? According to BMJ, he was enlisted by lawyers looking to sue pharmaceutical companie and was paid approximately $674,000 for the study. But Wakefield does still have his supporters, many who say the 36 vaccines in the U.S. children are given by the age of five years old, are being whitewashed. Whatever your take on this issue, Autism is a huge concern for parents, so read &amp;quot;Finding Autism Early.&amp;quot; - Alexandra Gekas, Associate Editor "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/health-fitness/news/a45280/british-journal-says-study-linking-autism-to-vaccines-was-fraudulent-965/>