Read any pro-vaccine article that disputes the link between vaccinations and autism and chances are Andrew Wakefield and his "fraudulent study" will be mentioned. Dubbed the "father of the anti-vaccine movement", Wakefield has been both revered and vilified, depending on which side of the argument uses his name. The funny thing is, he is not anti vaccine. He is, however, a critic of the MMR vaccine and has publicly stated that the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines should be given separately.

In 1998, Wakefield, Prof. John Walker Smith, Dr. Simon Burch, and 10 other co-authors published a paper in the Lancet, a British Medical Journal, which showed a possible correlation between the MMR vaccine and resultant gastrointestinal dysfunction along with developmental delays and autism.