MMR scare was 'deliberate fraud': British Medical Journal

London, Jan 6 (ANI): The British Medical Journal has declared that an infamous article in Lancet last year that linked the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to a new combined disorder of bowel problems and autism, was in fact, a 'hoax'.

The BMJ reviewed the transcript of the General Medical Council hearings, comparing them with the findings of investigative journalist Brian Deer and the research paper in the Lancet.

It discovered huge discrepancies between the children's medical notes and those published in the Lancet.

Dr Fiona Godlee, Editor of the BMJ, has accused Dr Wakefield of deliberate fraud, reports the Telegraph.

"The MMR scare was based not on bad science but on a deliberate fraud," she said.

Godlee added that such "clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare."

Godlee, deputy BMJ editor Jane Smith, and leading paediatrician and associate BMJ editor Harvey Marcovitch, said there is "no doubt" that it was Wakefield who perpetrated this fraud.

"A great deal of thought and effort must have gone into drafting the paper to achieve the results he wanted: the discrepancies all led in one direction; misreporting was gross," they said.

Godlee said in the BMJ: "Science is based on trust. Such a breach of trust is deeply shocking. And even though almost certainly rare on this scale, it raises important questions about how this could happen, what could have been done to uncover it earlier, what further inquiry is now needed, and what can be done to prevent something like this happening again." (ANI)