Some say that the modern anti-vax movement was sparked by a 1998 Lancet article published by British physician Andrew Wakefield. His study, in the world’s most prestigious medical journal, suggested a possible link between the nearly universal three-in-one vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) and autism in children. It was only some six years later that the paper, relying on fraudulent data and shaky methodologies, was exposed as part of a conspiracy to stir panic and introduce a competing vaccine and diagnostic tests through which Wakefield stood to make billions.

Undisclosed to the journal or the public, a small-town lawyer had hired Wakefield to attack the MMR vaccine in order to build a class-action lawsuit against its manufacturers, also providing the doctor with most of the 12 afflicted children for his study — some of whom turned out not to have autism at all.

Upon being discovered, Wakefield was stripped of his medical license. The Lancet finally retracted his article in 2010, but the damage was already done.