Children who have received the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) were 7 percent less likely to develop autism than those who did not get the shots, a new study of more than 650,000 children found. Some parents have been hesitant to vaccinate their children since a bogus 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield alleged a link between autism and the MMR vaccine. He subsequently lost his medical license and medical journal The Lancet retracted the study. However, the myth persists and anti-vaxxers have been blamed for ongoing measles outbreaks around the world and in the United States, where more than 200 cases were already recorded in 2019. “This idea that vaccines cause autism is still around and is still getting a lot of exposure in social media,” said Anders Hviid, lead study author. “At this point, you’ve had 17 previous studies done in seven countries, three different continents, involving hundreds of thousands of children. I think it’s fair to say a truth has emerged.”