Bad Astronomer Says It Best
Dr. Phil Plait has long been a voice of reason in the whole anti-vaccination stink. The retraction of the paper from the Lancet led to a brilliant post; a portion you can read below.
The Lancet statement is a bit bloodless… but they are a professional research journal and not a blog, so it’s not appropriate for them to call out Wakefield in more emotional — and utterly deserved — terms. It’s up to the blogs to call out Wakefield for his tireless efforts in creating of the modern antivaccination movement, which is becoming so successful that measles, mumps, pertussis, and other preventable diseases are on the rise again. And to note that not only was his research wrong, but that he may have faked his data. And to say that he has a huge conflict of interest here, since at the time he was involved in creating an alternative to vaccination that would make him very, very rich if people became scared to vaccinate their kids. And to inform peoplethat Wakefield was in the pocket of lawyers trying to sue the vaccine industry. And to basically call out the entire antivax movement for the incredible damage they have done and continue to do to public health.
Do read his full article at Bad Astronomy - And now, the antivax failure is complete: The Lancet withdraws Wakefield’s paper.
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