Are vaccines a partial cause of autism, as Secretary Markwayne Mullin suggested?

Are vaccines a partial cause of autism, as Secretary Markwayne Mullin suggested?

No. Multiple large-scale studies and major health organizations worldwide have repeatedly found no causal link between vaccines and autism. The idea stems from a 1998 article published by gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield that described, through retrospective accounts by parents and physicians, eight children manifesting autistic symptoms after receiving the MMR vaccine. Though the paper was eventually retracted due to serious professional mi…