That's not what happened. The Lancet published a poorly designed 'study' ...so bad I hate to even call it that suggesting a link between the MMR and autism. They rightly had to retract it ...no debunking needed.
There are many anecdotal accounts of regression into autism following the MMR, but there is no clear head-to-head vaccinated vs unvaccinated body of work to prove or disprove a connection. Traditionally using the scientific method, anecdotal evidence leads researchers to formal study but pharmaceutical companies are opposed in this case.
My nephew is one of the anecdotal cases. Within two weeks of receiving a round of vaccines that included the MMR, he stopped smiling, making eye contact and his vocabulary dropped from 20+ words to one word. The day of the vaccines, he was described as a "well developing toddler"; within two months, he met autism criteria when evaluated by a developmental pediatrician. Obviously, not all children react in this way. I suspect it's our familial autoimmune genetics that predisposed him to injury. We need well designed research into why some children regress following the vaccine but I'm not holding my breath waiting for it...
