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In recent years, more and more parents have been refusing vaccinations for their children out of fear that they might develop autism (even though no scientific evidence exists). This is the story of how one person’s lie can affect the entire world.
Council Of Foregin Relations
This interactive map by the Council of Foreign Relations shows the global damage that has occurred from 2008-2014 due to lack of human vaccinations. The map reveals the hundreds of thousands of people affected by epidemics of diseases that are all easily preventable by vaccines.
Many of these diseases have been under control in developed areas like the US and the UK, but there are still outbreaks due to people choosing not to vaccinate.
Most deaths occur in underdeveloped areas that don’t have access to vaccines, which is reflected on the map along with the number off attacks on health care providers and volunteers who administer vaccines.
care2.com
If these diseases are easily preventable and vaccines aren’t medically known to cause autism, why are so many people afraid of them?
Here’s how it all began….
In 1998, Andrew Wakefield released a fraudulent paper that claimed the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, rubella) was linked to brain damage and bowel disorder. The study included only 12 children and the results have yet to be replicated, but Wakefield’s persistence raised concern in many parents.
After his claims that MMR was causing an “epidemic of autism”, a number of people became suspect of all vaccines.
CNN
This fire appeared to be fueled by the media and a certain former playmate who claimed that vaccines caused autism in her son (whose autism has been questioned) and that she was able to cure him through alternative medicine.
texasobserver
Wakefield has since been proven a fraud…
Award-winning investigator Brian Deer exposed the reality of the false public alarm. Turns out that Wakefield had falsified documents and altered his data because he was paid nearly a million dollars to do it.
He had been hired by a lawyer named Richard Barr to produce evidence that would “convince a court that these vaccines are dangerous” and was paid off through the UK legal aid fund.
allthingsandersoncooper
In spite of the mounds of evidence against the credibility of Wakefield and his “research”, people continue to believe there is a link between vaccines and autism.
Of course vaccines can have risks and side effects for some – autism is just not proven to be one of them.
