The MMR vaccine causes autism. Andrew Wakefield published the paper in The Lancet in 1998. Twelve children, gut symptoms, regression after the jab. The data spoke. Parents listened. Vaccination rates dropped across the UK and the US, and by extension across Australia and most of the developed world. There were celebrities, there were documentaries, there were communities of frightened parents. By the early 2000s, this was the most consequential medical claim in a generation.
The Wakefield paper was fraudulent. Not 'mistaken' or 'overinterpreted,' actively fabricated. Investigative journalist Brian Deer demonstrated, between 2004 and 2011, that Wakefield had altered patient records, recruited subjects through anti-vaccine lawyers (he was being paid by the lawyers), and held an undisclosed patent on a single-vaccine alternative he stood to profit from if MMR was discredited. The Lancet retracted the paper in 2010. Wakefield was struck off the UK medical register. Subsequent studies, including a 2019 Danish cohort study of 657,461 children, have found no association between MMR and autism. The damage to public trust is still being measured. UK measles cases hit a 25-year high in 2024. American outbreaks since 2019 have been the worst in decades. The original paper is the most thoroughly debunked piece of medical research of the modern era. The anti-vaccine movement that grew from it has killed children. It's not a debate. It's a fraud, exposed, on the public record, with sources you can read.