To Those Who Want to Believe, Truth is Irrelevant
A lie travels halfway around the world while the truth is still tying its bootlaces. By the time Wakefield’s fraud was uncovered, his bogus findings had triggered an anti-vaccine panic within certain population segments. They went on to seed an irrational movement impervious to reason or facts, and became fervent opponents of vaccination. It did not matter that the study upon which their activism is based has been debunked as a fraud. Those activists went on, and convinced many of the poorly informed, poorly educated, or gullible, that vaccines are bad for children.
Thus, one of humanity’s greatest medical advances, which helped end widespread epidemics that killed most children before they reached adulthood, is threatened. Childhood diseases that had been all but eliminated have returned, and more and more unvaccinated are destined to die or suffer grave illnesses that leave them crippled for life. As such, this fraud has been described as the worst hoax of the past century – a fraud that has already killed or maimed many children, and has the potential to kill or maim millions more.
