March 2011 Newsletter

Dear Dr. Hale,

Is it safe for my baby to get the MMR vaccine?

Dr. Hale’s response from the InfantRisk Center website:

For over a decade, parents have been concerned about the possible link between the MMR vaccine and Autism.  This scare came following the publication of a research study that was done in London and subsequently published in the Lancet on February 28, 1998.  The paper linked the MMR vaccine to Autism and described the syndrome in 12 developmentally challenged children who supposedly developed symptoms following vaccine exposure.  The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has now written a series explaining how the data behind these claims was obtained and is calling this study “a fraud”.   Below is the link to the recently published article in the BMJ.