There is no link. And there never was:
THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found.
Confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses have established that Andrew Wakefield manipulated patients’ data, which triggered fears that the MMR triple vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella was linked to the condition.
(via)
Children in the UK have died of measles because of this idiot. And one of the daily newspapers that threw their weight behind the guy and screamed ‘MMR isn’t safe!’ has never apologised. Scaremongering fucktards.
We vaccinated our daughter without a moments hesitation but we know plenty of parents that still think there is an autism link and are insistent that the government pay for three separate jabs. Because it’s the governments fault. It’s the always the governments fault.
This guy was actually discredited over here years ago when it was discovered he was basically in the pocket of some drugs company. Some of his staff also came forward and questioned both his motives and his methods. IIRC there was a major Japanese study of MMR/Autism, involving hundreds of thousands of children back in the 90s. Did they find a link? Nope. Did that sway the idiots who lapped up the Daily Fear? As if.
This episode really taught me about the power of the press and how gullible and pig-ignorant people can be.
I know a guy with autistic children and both him and his wife are geniuses (they met at Cambridge) – I mean, we’re talking rocket scientists here. He has always dismissed the MMR link as total bollocks and thinks there is a link between the fact him and wife are both boffins and one of them has a touch of Aspergers. They have been included in a study by Simon Baron Cohen’s (Borat’s cousin).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Baron_Cohen