Anti-vaccine

Let’s take, for example the myth that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is the cause of autism. This claim has been completely discredited, yet several Hollywood celebrities continue to endorse it, some backing an anti-vaccine film made by pseudo-scientists.

Should journalists reporting on autism give time to the position of the anti-vaccine believers? No. They are not scientists. Their “opinions” cannot be balanced against scientific knowledge and certainty. Both sides are not equal and it is misleading to treat them equally.

A new book defending vaccines, written by a doctor infuriated at the claim that they cause autism, is galvanizing a backlash against the antivaccine movement in the United States.

This tactic should not be surprising given that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. served as a producer on “Vaxxed II.” A recent study found Kennedy’s anti-vaccination organization, the World Mercury Project, was one of two groups responsible for 54 percent of anti-vaccine advertisements on Facebook.

The study, which mapped the vaccine conversation on Facebook during the 2019 measles outbreak, found that there were nearly three times as many active anti-vaccination communities as pro-vaccination communities. In addition, they found that while pro-vaccine pages tended to have more followers, anti-vaccine pages were faster-growing.

Donald Trump’s habit of projecting his own failings onto his adversaries reached a new level of absurdity on Labor Day, when he attacked the Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for “reckless anti-vaccine rhetoric” and accused them of a position that “undermines science.”