Is It True That Andrew Wakefield's Research Never Claimed Vaccines Cause Autism?

It is true-ish.  

Wakefield's now-retracted  paper, "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children"   did not claim to show that vaccines cause autism, and concluded:

“We did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described. Virological studies are underway that may help to resolve this issue.”

but Wakefield loudly proclaimed at the 1998 press conference, and ever since, that the MMR was linked to autism:`

Jeremy Laurance, a UK reporter, was at the press conference and published this report in 2010

[The Royal Free Hospital]  decided to deal with the inevitable press interest head on. It called a press conference before a panel of five doctors, led by Professor Arie Zuckerman (a virologist and dean of the medical school, but not an author of the paper), who were carefully selected to present a balanced view. All were eminent in their own fields but, fatally, each had a different opinion.

The five had rehearsed the press conference in advance and agreed the line they would take, which was to recommend continued use of the MMR vaccine pending further research. Under questioning, however, this carefully constructed consensus fell apart.

The five of them were sitting behind a table with Andrew Wakefield on the extreme left and Arie Zuckerman on the right. The tension rose as the event progressed and by the end Wakefield was coolly urging parents to give their children single vaccines at annual intervals, while Zuckerman was on his feet, banging the lectern in frustration as he insisted that the MMR vaccine had been given to millions of children around the world and was safe.

Brian Deer has a transcript of the interview Wakefield gave to Twenty Twenty Television on February 4 1998

DR ANDREW WAKEFIELD: ... And I have to say that there is sufficient anxiety in my own mind of the safety, the long term safety of the polyvalent, that is the MMR vaccination in combination, that I think that it should be suspended in favour of the single vaccines, that is continued use of the individual measles, mumps and rubella components...there is no doubt that if you give three viruses together, three live viruses, then you potentially increase the risk of an adverse event occurring, particularly when one of those viruses influences the immune system in the way that measles does. And it may be, and studies will show this or not, that giving the measles on its own reduces the risk of this particular syndrome developing... the risk of this particular syndrome developing is related to the combined vaccine, the MMR, rather than the single vaccines.... People have been saying for some time, people on the periphery of autism, have been saying for some time that this may well be related to bowel damage. The Italians for example have found that children who are autistic have in many cases a leaky intestine. Others, biochemists, have been saying that it may be a toxic state that absorption of chemicals such as opioid, peptides, morphine like substances from the gut that you and I produce in our diet from milk and wheat, are actually getting access through that leaky gut into the developing brain.

On May 8, 2012, the blog Left Brain/Right Brain published a list, "Andrew Wakefield’s many statements that MMR causes autism". (Left Brain/Right Brain Blog first came into existence in 2003. Over the years it has changed its basic form a few times but its core content and interest has always been autism and the news, science – and bad science – associated with it.)

Comments

[Ross Coe]

Wakefield was used to crush the truth about the MMR used. It was rejected by Canada because of safety concerns. Canada's Health Minister advised Britain, but they ignored the warning. Britain is likely the most corrupt nation in the world. Those with money prey on the have nots, and with vaccines they are used as test subjects.

[Julian Frost]

And your proof for this conspiracy is..?

[Chris]

I didn't notice that Mr. Coe returned!

I have asked him several times to answer a a question about how what happened to Olivia Dahl was like autism, but he never answers. I doubt he will provide any proof at any time.