Out here in the wilds of Canada (or, as we like to call it, the rolling hills of the Eastern Townships), we have a devotee of the notorious Dr. Andrew Wakefield. She's a former editor of our little English-language community newspaper, and uses her status to periodically harangue its readers on the topic of vaccines and autism. She writes well, but unfortunately in defense of the idea that Wakefield is a persecuted hero who has bravely defied the medical establishment which has tried to destroy him.
In response, I write letters-to-the-editor contesting her bizarre claims with what I consider to be facts. But I'm afraid that it's likely that most readers of our newspaper prefer her conspiracy view. As it happens, near-by Quebec City is experiencing an unusual but fortunately minor outbreak of measles, because the vaccination rate is still high there. The cause has been traced to people returning from France, where they've suffered a much more severe outbreak. Their vaccination rate has dropped to a dangerously low 60%, undoubtedly due to the influence of Dr. Wakefield. The passion with which people still defend Dr. Wakefield is described vividly in an excellent recent New York Times Magazine essay on Dr. Wakefield and what has become of him (He's living comfortably in Austin, Texas). One defender is quoted as saying "To our communiuty, Andrew Wakefield is Nelson Mandela and Jesus Christ rolled up into one". And this about a person whose theory has been refuted, whose medical license has been revoked, and whose autism research has been declared fraudulent by the British Medical Journal. Extraordinary! The article is "The crash and burn of an autism guru" by Susan Dominus, here: http://tinyurl.com/3cps58p [Note: my printer died with an error message telling me of a hardware problem mid-way through printing the article. After trying various desperate tricks to get it going again, I discovered it was specific to that article. So if you have the same problem, consider that it might be them rather than you.] Stephen -------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca --------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=10286 or send a blank email to leave-10286-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
