Editor in the eye of a storm

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7438.528

BMJ 2004;328:528 (28 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7438.528

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Editor in the eye of a storm

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Is the editor of a medical journal responsible for the way itscontents are reported, and the quality of the ensuing debate,as well as the accuracy of the material itself? It is a questionthat Dr Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, and one of thefigures in the eye of this week's media storm over the MMR (measles,mumps, and rubella) vaccine, has answered unequivocally in thepast.

The Sunday Times article that sparkedthe latest MMR controversy

In an essay entitled "Vaccine Myths"—included in his bookDoctors, Diseases and Decisions in Modern Medicine, which waspublished last year (reviewed BMJ 2003;327: 399[Free Full Text])—DrHorton recounted the events that followed the Lancet's publicationof Dr Andrew Wakefield's 1998 study that sparked the suggestionof a link between MMR and autism. He says: "Although I knewthis paper would be controversial, I did not expect the . . . [Full text of this article]

Joanna Lyall, freelance journalist

London j.lyall@ision.co.uk

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