Debunking Autism theory

An editorial in the New York Times today points to a new case-control study that attempts to replicate the controversial Wakefield study on autism, which in 1998 drew an inferential link between the MMR vaccine, gastrointestinal problems found in many autistic children and autism.

The new study, conducted by researchers from Columbia University, Massachusetts General Hospital and the CDC, tried and failed to replicate the earlier findings. The new study, published in PLoS One, is freely available on the web: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0003140