Andrew Wakefield, Disgraced Anti-Vax Doctor, Returns With A Documentary At Tribeca Film Fest

Andrew Wakefield is back in the news, thanks to a new, controversial documentary set to premiere at the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The film, directed by Wakefield himself, claims that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention orchestrated a conspiracy to cover up the "true" reason for America's rising autism diagnosis rates: vaccines.  This is a widely and soundly discredited assertion. Studies from the independent, non-profit Institute of Medicine, the World Health Organization and the CDC have all found that there is no link between receiving vaccines and developing autism spectrum disorder. Instead, what these studies demonstrate is that vaccines are overwhelmingly safe, with very rare cases of side effects, and that they protect children from dangerous and preventable diseases. We've asked the CDC to comment on the film and its so-called "whistleblower," and will update this story if they respond. But for people who happen to stumble upon the film's trailer and feel briefly scared and disoriented -- dramatic music, sinister cartoons and emotional clips of autistic children will do that to you -- we've put together a handy guide to remind everyone what Wakefield did, and why he doesn't deserve anybody's trust now.  Who is Andrew Wakefield? Andrew Wakefield is a disgraced former doctor who believes that standard childhood vaccinations can cause autism, despite a slew of large, well-designed and authoritative studies t...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news