The Retracted Paper

A 1998 study of twelve children, later found fraudulent with undisclosed financial conflicts; journal retraction, license revoked. The panic it seeded outlived every correction — a case study in how retractions don't travel.

The retracted paper: Andrew Wakefield's 1998 Lancet study linking MMR vaccine to autism — retracted in 2010 after Brian Deer's investigation documented undisclosed payments from litigation lawyers, an unrevealed patent interest, and manipulated case histories; the GMC struck Wakefield off. Documented aftermath: measles resurgence in under-vaccinated communities, and Wakefield's second career as a movement martyr ('Vaxxed,' 2016). The map's benchmark case of scientific fraud generating a permanent folklore — the retraction is the proof to one audience and the cover-up to the other.