The measles outbreak in the USA has now killed at least two people, including a 6 year old girl, and has infected at least 430.
430 might not seem like a huge number, but it’s worth remembering that even if infection doesn’t cause death, it can result in deafness, blindness and brain damage, as well as having other serious long-term effects.
And we’ve been through some of the reasons that this outbreak is happening. Indeed, the parents of the little girl that died gave an interview after her death in which they said that they remained strongly anti-vaccination. And while you can argue that that’s their right (sadly, it is), maybe for some context we should add another of the things they said in the same interview:
“The measles wasn’t that bad.”
That ‘s them describing the disease that just killed their daughter.
Absolutely terrifying. Not least given that they have 4 other kids.
Of course, one of the other reasons (other than religion) that measles vaccination has waned is Andrew Wakefield’s long-disproven link between MMR and autism.
A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
There are now many, many studies refuting Wakefield’s “work” – and it’s a horrible lesson in how incredibly damaging and dangerous spreading falsehoods can be.
It’s absolutely clear that Wakefield’s “study” was – at best – terrible science, and – at worst – completely fraudulent.
So it’s both weird and worrying that The Department of Health and Human Services in the US has decided to launch a study into… er… “the connection between immunisations and autism”, and even weirder and more worrying that [gosh] they’ve chosen a prominent anti-vaxxer to help run it.
David Geier has written several papers on the alleged dangers of vaccines in causing developmental disorders in children, several of them funded by the non-profit Institute of Chronic Illnesses (ICI), Inc. The CEO of the Institute of Chronic Illnesses (ICI), Inc. is one David Grier.
He’s certainly never medically examined children even though he holds no medical qualification.
Grier and his father have long been grifting while pretending that there’s a link between vaccines and autism. They then tested and “treated” their patients at huge expense to the parents, while raking in money for representing them at (unsuccessful) legal hearings into their childrens’ disorders.
Anyway, he seems like the perfect guy to run an unbiased, objective, non-partisan study into this allegedly contentious and emotive non-issue.
What – I ask again – could possibly go wrong?