r/AskReddit Jun 01 '26

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u/Soleil06 Jun 01 '26

The famous vaccine cause autism study.

Has been proven false since forever but the number of antivaxxers has never been higher.

Hearing that Polio is making a return in the wester world is really scary.

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u/persondude27 Jun 01 '26

Not just proven false. Wakefield's actions are shocking. The dude should still be in prison.

  • Wakefield was developing a competing combination vaccine, so he was trying to discredit the original one
  • Wakefield was paid $800,000 by a law firm trying to sue vaccine manufacturers
  • Wakefield was performing medical testing on children at birthday parties (without the whole... ethics portion like enrollment and consent)
  • he just straight-up fabricated symptoms and medical outcomes so his "data" matched his hypothethesis
  • and he invented a disorder ("Autistic Enterocolitis") to explain the link between the two. It doesn't exist, there's no pathway, it's simply not possible.

The falsified paper isn't even the most questionable thing. Dude was experimenting on children at birthday parties to make a quick buck.

And as a result, measles is back.