The first study linking autism to vaccines in 1998, was by Andrew Wakefield and eleven other authors, who helped with it. Unsurprisingly, many people, including private researches with ZERO links to the government (Who made little money off of vaccines in the first place and; therefore, had no reason to lie in the first place) found no links between autism and vaccinating people. Later, Wakefield was caught lying about his methods and abusing kids for the purpose of proving his theory. As a result, he got his medical license taken away, so there's that.