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Extensive investigation into vaccines and autism spectrum disorder^[1] has shown that there is no relationship between the two, causal or otherwise,^[1][2][3] and that the vaccine ingredients do not cause autism.^[4] Vaccinologist Peter Hotez researched the growth of the false claim and concluded that its spread originated with Andrew Wakefield‘s fraudulent 1998 paper, with no prior paper supporting a link.^[5]

Despite the scientific consensus for the absence of a relationship^[1][2] and the retracted paper, the anti-vaccination movement at large continue to promote myths, conspiracy theories, and misinformation linking the two.^[6] A developing tactic appears to be the “promotion of irrelevant research [as] an active aggregation of several questionable or peripherally related research studies in an attempt to justify the science underlying a questionable claim.”^[7]

Claimed mechanisms

See also: Causes of autism § Vaccines

The claimed mechanisms have changed over time, in response to evidence refuting each in turn.^[8]

Vaccine-derived measles virus

See also: MMR vaccine and autism and Lancet MMR autism fraud

The idea of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism came to prominence after the publication of a paper by Andrew Wakefield and others in The Lancet in 1998. This paper, which was retracted in 2010 and whose publication led to Wakefield being struck off the United Kingdom medical register, has been described as “the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years”.^[9]

Wakefield’s primary claim was that he had isolated evidence of vaccine-strain measles virus RNA in the intestines of autistic children, leading to a condition he termed autistic enterocolitis (a condition never recognised or adopted by the scientific community). This finding was later shown to be due to errors made by the laboratory where the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were performed.^{[citation needed]}

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),^[10] the IOM of the United States National Academy of Sciences,^[11] and the National Health Service^[12] have all concluded that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. A systematic review by the Cochrane Library concluded that there is no credible link between the MMR vaccine and autism, that MMR has prevented diseases that still carry a heavy burden of death and complications, that the lack of confidence in MMR has damaged public health, and that the design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies are largely inadequate.^[13]

In 2009, The Sunday Times reported that Wakefield had manipulated patient data and misreported results in his 1998 paper, thus falsifying a link with autism.^[14] A 2011 article in the British Medical Journal describes the way in which Wakefield manipulated the data in his study in order to arrive at his predetermined conclusion.^[15] An accompanying editorial in the same journal described Wakefield’s work as an “elaborate fraud” which led to lower vaccination rates, putting hundreds of thousands of children at risk and diverting funding and other resources from research into the true cause of autism.^[16]

On 12 February 2009, a special court convened in the United States to review claims under its National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program ruled parents of autistic children are not entitled to compensation in their contention that certain vaccines caused their children to develop autism.^[17]

Read the whole article here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_autism

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