The article, by journalist Brian Deer, found that important details of the cases of each of 12 children reported in the original study either misrepresented or altered the actual experiences of the children, the journal said. “In no single case could the medical records be fully reconciled with the descriptions, diagnoses, or histories published in the journal,” the editorial said. It called the study “an elaborate fraud.”…

In the article, Mr. Deer reported interviewing parents of the children included in the Wakefield study and finding important discrepancies between their recollections and medical records and what was reported in the Lancet. In one case, for instance, symptoms of autism and bowel problems appeared well before a child was vaccinated.