Origins
A pervasive myth, created by renowned cooker and disgraced former doctor, Andrew Wakefield.
This fabrication was first thrust forth into the public eye when, in 1998, a study was published in the medical journal "The Lancet", alleging a link between the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine and autism.
The journal did eventually retract the study, but unfortunately this happened many years too late, as it was used as the basis for much poor reporting in the news media, and most likely formed the opinions of many a cookers parent(s), on the subject of vaccine safety.
Subsequent studies conducted on *millions* of children have shown absolutely no causal links to autism whatsoever. No tenuous links, in fact, no links of any kind, at all. Ever. In fact, even more hilariously, the actual retracted study states:
We did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described
— The Lancet, Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children
Interestingly, despite Wankfield being regarded as the father of the modern "anti-vax" movement, at the time he birthed said movement from his deformed loins, he wasn't actually "anti-vax". In fact, he was instead, trying to instill fear in the public over the combined MMR vaccine. He invented a condition he called ”autistic enterocolitis”, and claimed to have found a connection between this condition, and children with autism, beginning after the administration of the MMR vaccination.
He stood to profit massively from this in two ways, firstly, by starting a "testing clinic" for the illness, which, given that it didn't exist, would have been the only facility able to "detect it", and secondly, by means of a patent on a singular Measles vaccine, which was the whole key to the grift to begin with, presumably selling millions of units after his fraudulent study had discredited the combination vaccine according to his plan.