There is no link between vaccines and autism

Vaccine resistance is not a new phenomenon. In fact, it’s known to have its roots across the world owing to safety issues and a lot more controversies. One of the most profound and prevalent controversies/speculation of the recent years is the hypothesis that the MMR vaccine is one of the causes of autism. This is not specific to Indian context but the hesitancy is seen world over when the debate over the alleged link to autism began in 1998. That year, Andrew Wakefield’s paper was published in The Lancet stating that the MMR vaccine caused autism.

The relationship between vaccinations and the onset of serious neuropsychiatric diseases is certainly one of coincidence rather than causality. This claim results from controlled studies that have excluded the association between vaccines and severe neurological diseases, therefore it can be said, with little risk of error, that the association between modern vaccinations and serious neurological disorders/learning capabilities is a true "urban myth"

The paper that considered only 12 children as control group later was officially labeled “fraud” by England’s General Medical Counsel, but it triggered a lot of debate over the safety of the vaccine which continues to this day. Wakefield’s research was in fact funded by lawyers acting for parents who were involved in lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers. The Lancet has accordingly later retracted the paper and till date at least 12 follow-up studies found no evidence between autism and the MMR vaccine