Andrew Wakefield and the MMR vaccine (1998) The Lancet was criticised after it published a paper in 1998 in which the authors suggested a
link between the
MMR vaccine and
autism spectrum disorder. In February 2004,
The Lancet published a statement by 10 of the paper's 13 coauthors repudiating the possibility that MMR could cause autism. Editor-in-chief,
Richard Horton went on the record to say the paper had "fatal conflicts of interest" that the study's lead author,
Andrew Wakefield, had not declared to
The Lancet. The journal completely retracted the paper on 2 February 2010, after Wakefield was found to have acted unethically in conducting the research.
The Lancets six editors, including the editor-in-chief, were also criticised in 2011 because they had "covered up" the "Wakefield concocted fear of MMR" with an "avalanche of denials" in 2004.
Iraq War death toll estimates (2004–2006) The Lancet published an estimate of the
Iraq War's Iraqi death toll—around 100,000—in 2004. In 2006, a follow-up study by the same team suggested that the violent death rate in Iraq was not only consistent with the earlier estimate, but had increased considerably in the intervening period. The second survey estimated that there had been 654,965 excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war. The 95%
confidence interval was 392,979 to 942,636. 1,849 households that contained 12,801 people were surveyed.
PACE study (2011) In 2011,
The Lancet published a study by the UK-based "PACE trial management group", which reported success with graded exercise therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy for
myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). A follow-up study was published in
Lancet Psychiatry in 2015. The studies attracted criticism from some patients and researchers, especially with regard to conclusions from data analysis that was
different from that described in the original protocol. In a 2015
Slate article, biostatistician Bruce Levin of
Columbia University was quoted saying "The Lancet needs to stop
circling the wagons and be open", and that "one of the tenets of good science is transparency"; while
Ronald Davis of
Stanford University said: "the Lancet should step up to the plate and pull that paper". The results from the PACE trial have been used to promote
graded exercise therapy; however, these recommendations are now viewed by most public health bodies as outdated and highly harmful to ME/CFS patients.
Surgisphere study on the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine (2020) In May 2020,
The Lancet published an observational
retrospective cohort study by
Mandeep R. Mehra of the
Harvard Medical School and Sapan S. Desai of Surgisphere Corporation, which concluded that the malaria drugs
hydroxychloroquine and
chloroquine did not improve the condition of
COVID-19 patients, and may have harmed some of them. In response to concerns raised by members of the scientific community and the media about the veracity of the data and analyses,
The Lancet decided to launch an independent third party investigation of Surgisphere and the metastudy. Specifically,
The Lancet editors wanted to "evaluate the origination of the database elements, to confirm the completeness of the database, and to replicate the analyses presented in the paper" The independent peer reviewers in charge of the investigation notified
The Lancet that Surgisphere would not provide the requested data and documentation. The authors of the study then asked
The Lancet to retract the article, which was done on 3 June 2020. To improve quality control, the editors of The Lancet Group announced changes to the editorial policy in a comment titled "Learning from a retraction" which was published on 22 September 2020.
COVID-19 Commission US lab origin conspiracy theory (2022) In September 2022,
The Lancet published the report of their COVID-19 Commission headed by economist
Jeffrey Sachs, who has claimed that
COVID-19 came from a US "biotechnology" lab. Before the report's release, Sachs appeared on the podcast of
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who previously spread vaccine conspiracy theories. On the podcast episode, Sachs claimed that "Government officials such as
Anthony Fauci "are not being honest" about the virus's origins". The published report included claims that "independent researchers have not yet investigated" US labs, and said the
National Institutes of Health "resisted disclosing details" of its work. Virologist
Angela Rasmussen commented that this may have been "one of
The Lancet most shameful moments".
David Robertson from the University of Glasgow's
Centre for Virus Research said it was "really disappointing to see such a potentially influential report contributing to further misinformation on such an important topic" and it was "true we've details to understand on the side of natural origins, for example the exact intermediate species involved, but that doesn't mean there's ... any basis to the wild speculation that US labs were involved." Before the 2023 retractions, in September 2015,
The Lancet published an
editorial titled, "Paolo Macchiarini is not guilty of scientific misconduct". ==Editorial controversies==