The Lancet, a prestigious medical journal in the UK, said this week it was retracting the article that first linked autism to the vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella. The article was published 12 years ago.
The retraction is a result of the publication's research into Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the lead author for the article, and his scientific methods and financial conflicts.
The editor of The Lancet told NPR's Scott Hensley that papers would receive more scrutiny because of the risk to public health, especially because of the Web and the greater reach of a scientific issue in the media.