The hoax about a link between vaccines and autism begins to spread. Andrew Wakefield, a British doctor, publishes an article in The Lancet on the subject. The article is later recognized as scientifically incorrect (no control cases were used) and retracted, but the damage is done: vaccination rates plummet from 93% to 75% in the UK, down to 50% in London. From 56 measles cases in 1998, the number drops to 1,348 in 2008. Three die. A subsequent investigation finds that the British doctor was actually behind the conspiracy. It is discovered that the legal representative of a group of families with autistic children had paid the doctor £500,000. This connection was crucial to proving the link to vaccines and seeking compensation. Dr. Wakefield had also pulled another sneaky trick: he had patented (UK patent 9711663.6 of June 6, 1997) a system for producing three separate vaccines, to be recommended instead of the official ones. In-depth studies were conducted, but no link between vaccines and autism was found. Unfortunately, as of 2015, the cause of the increase in autism is unknown, especially in the US. Nevertheless, rumors of a link to vaccines are still circulating.
