Of the original 1770 children with special educational needs (SEN) in the study by Baird et al,1 255 had autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Of the 1770, a total of 735 dropped out and then a further 780 were excluded for reasons which are not transparent. This left 255 children (not the 255 with ASD): some had ASD and some just SEN, but we do not know in what proportion. Then, exactly 100 were excluded because of inadequate blood tests. Of the remaining children, 101 had ASD (less than 40% of the original 255 children with autism). None is reported to have bowel disease (the subgroup of Wakefield’s study) or an adverse reaction to MMR.

It is not clear what the scientific purpose of this study …