the lead author was a british gastroenterologist and andrew wakefield. he was one of 13 authors on the study. and what the british medical journal report or three part series the started coming out about one month ago said was that wakefield had committed outright fraud when he submitted his report. the stories that then resulted on tv and the newspaper, newspapers was report that -- initial report that linked autism and vaccines. that is both complete and accurate and i think completely irresponsible. this was a study that had been debunked years earlier. andrew wakefield lost his medical license as a result of the tests that he performed on children in this study that did not hold up. we have known for years that he had taken out a patent for an alternate measles vaccine just before he published this initial study. we also know that 12 children who appeared in that study had not been consecutive the referred as was initially planned. and we know that there have not been any studies that have been able to replicate his findings and, in fact, there have b

andrew wakefield lost his license as a result of the tests he performed on children in this study that did not hold up. we've known for years that he had taken out a patent for an alternate measles vaccine before he published this article. we also know that the 12 children who appeared in that study had not been consecutively referred as was initially claimed, and we know that there have not been any studies that have been able to replicate his findings, and, in fact, there's studies involving millions and millions of children that have shown the exact opposite that there's not a direct connection between the mmr vaccine and autism. when the media went forward and framed this as studies debunked and then as we, the media, want to do had segments with andrew wakefield on the one hand and somebody from the ama on the other hand, that gave and gives the impression that this is on the one hand on the other hand debate, which it is not, and that's a fundamental problem with the way the press acts specifically around medicine and health, and it's also an issue with politics, and i'm not sayi

the initial study that andrew wakefield did in 1998 was based on 12 children, a 12 person case study, and he said that these 12 children, their parents had given him after-the-fact recollections of changes in their children's behavior and the temporal correlation with when they got the mmr vaccine. i don't know how many people are here roughly today or how many people are here in that third, but say 25 and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight of the worm in. there is a case study of the percent of the population that is male and female. that is the equivalent of eating consecutively referred. i pick up special groups. if i then went and said okay 70% of the population is female based on this case study i did, that would clearly be ridiculous the most i could say from a case study is that it's interesting there is this very isolated situation that i am dealing wits seem to be statistically significant data something maybe we should look at more and try and look at over a population with a wider subset of people. i also -- if you have a case series or a case study that is base

. >> seth mnookin looks at the 1998 study by british researcher andrew wakefield linking childhood vaccinations to autism. the wakefield report has led to a movement in the u.s. fueled by celebrities like oprah winfrey and jenny mccarthy to stop vaccinating children which mr. mnookin says is aou