Seriously?! All this anti-vax paranoia came from ONE study?! ONE.

[paxnirvana]

Retracted autism study an 'elaborate fraud,' British journal finds from CNN.

Even better? The con-man ass did it for MONEY.

People are sheep. And I'm insulting sheep with this one.

Measles, mumps and rubella can (and do) kill. Get the damn immunizations done. ARGH!!

Comments

[kiri_moth]

Absolutely there are individuals who cannot and should not get vaccines due to sensitivities and allergies.

But their risk to the general population is lower than the risk of several deadly diseases that we had gotten under good control due to vaccinating the population. The fact that someone cooked up this massive fraudulent study about vaccines causing autism and that it's been passed off as the truth for so long and with wide enough impact that diseases like mumps are returning and causing deaths is a very serious concern.

[kiri_moth]

There are legit reasons not to vaccinate, and they don't have to be medical - some choose not to because it's simply against their religion. Previously we relied on the fact that the majority of the population DID get vaccinations, and that protected those who didn't through choice or inability. Now that we're losing the numbers we need to keep at 'herd immunity', we're getting in trouble and babies and children start dying.

I just really hope that people who would otherwise be willing and able to get vaccines will see sense from news reports like this and won't have to be swayed from news reports of more and more deaths.

[paxnirvana]

Seniors die too.

My 78-year-old father got Pertussis (Whooping cough) because his vaccine ran out (it only lasts about 10 years). He turned blue because he couldn't get air between coughs. He was lucky he doesn't have a heart condition or lung issues like so many do at his age, because I could see how that kind of stress could easily kill someone who did.

Scared the hell out of us, let me tell you. Human's aren't supposed to turn blue.

[kiri_moth]

Good point - though I was thinking in terms of children who are too young to get some of the vaccines or unable to make the choice for themselves.

Speaking of pertussis - I wish they'd publicized the need for the adult vaccine for that more. I only got vaccinated for it last year and had NO idea I was so overdue for it. I wish my doctor had brought it up sooner!

[hungry_worm]

I read that he actually developed his own measles vaccine, which could mean that he falsified the study to get better chances with his own product.

A falsely believed study like that will stay in the heads of vaccine-opposing people forever. Of course vaccination is a sensitive issue (I'm personally rather for it), but yeah... people like him are the pest, literally.

[paxnirvana]

The issue is that this wouldn't even be such a hot-button issue at all for any parent, anywhere if this utter jackass hadn't been trying to make a buck at the public's expense by deliberately manufacturing a connection to an unrelated condition. Thereby diverting so much energy and attention from actual ways to study causes, and get help for, autism. As well as raising the overall risk of disease for so many people by discouraging parents from getting badly needed immunizations for their children.

HE FAKED IT. All this fear and distrust and self-doubt for parents now is based on LIES. And that makes me angry. So very very angry.