Claims of a connection between the vaccine and autism were initially raised in a 1998 paper in the respected British medical journal, The Lancet. After it was discovered that Andrew Wakefield, the paper's lead author, had received major funding from British trial lawyers seeking evidence, 10 of the paper's 12 co-authors retracted their support of any association between the MMR vaccine and autism. In 2004, a report by the Institute of Medicine concluded that there is no link between autism and the MMR vaccine, and found no link between autism and vaccines that contain thimerosal as a preservative.

We believe that it is important for parents and pediatricians to continue to rely on immunizations to protect all children from preventable—and potentially deadly—illnesses. Many vaccine-preventable diseases can have dangerous consequences, including seizures, brain damage, blindness, and even death. The CDC continues to recommend two doses of the MMR vaccine for all children: dose one at ages 12-15 months and dose two at ages 4-6 years.