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mahatmakanejeeves

(56,885 posts)
Fri Jan 23, 2015, 10:24 AM Jan 2015

The Disneyland measles outbreak and the disgraced doctor who whipped up vaccination fear

The Disneyland measles outbreak and the disgraced doctor who whipped up vaccination fear



Andrew Wakefield, center, stands with his wife, Carmel Wakefield, as he speaks to the media after a hearing at the General Medical Council (GMC) in London on Jan. 28, 2010. The GMC ruled that Wakefield acted unethically in doing his research into a link between vaccinations and autism. (Luke MacGregor/Reuters)

Morning Mix

By Terrence McCoy January 23 at 4:43 AM
@Terrence_mccoy
[email protected]

Just before 7 p.m. last Thursday, as the Disneyland measles outbreak was emerging, the Los Angeles Times published an outraged editorial. It didn’t blame Disneyland, where the outbreak originated before going on to infect 70 people across six states. Nor did it blame any public agency. Instead, it took aim at a buoyant movement that won’t “get over its ignorant and self-absorbed rejection of science.”

The faction was the anti-vaccine movement — its holy text a retracted medical study, its high priest a disgraced British doctor named Andrew Wakefield. “The prospect of a new measles epidemic is disturbing,” the editorial said. “So is the knowledge that many ill-informed people accept a thoroughly discredited and retracted study in the journal Lancet that purported to associate vaccination with autism.”

Officials from Mexico to California are now scrambling to contain an outbreak that began at Disneyland but has now spilled across state lines, infecting dozens, many of whom never received the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR).

If the outbreak proves anything, it’s Wakefield’s enduring legacy. Even years after he lost his medical license, years after he was shown to have committed numerous ethical violations, and years after the retraction of a medical paper that alleged a vaccine-autism link, his message resonates. Facebook is populated by pages like “Dr. Wakefield’s Work Must Continue.” There’s the Web site called “We Support Andrew Wakefield,” which peddles the Wakefieldian doctrine. And thousands sign petitions pledging support.
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The Disneyland measles outbreak and the disgraced doctor who whipped up vaccination fear (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Jan 2015 OP
Wakefield is a repulsive character. LeftishBrit Jan 2015 #1
Read the many remarkable comments providing sources which handily rebut McCoy's inaccuracies/fiction proverbialwisdom Jan 2015 #2
K & R. It's far past time to for EVERYONE to recognize the damage anti-vaxers do. HuckleB Jan 2015 #3
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