Video & Multimedia
Related: About this forumThis is the best take down of the anti-vax movement I have seen so far
It's long, but give it 20 minutes and you probably will watch the whole thing. I though I knew how bad it is, but it's history is far worse than I even imagined. It's also very creative and entertaining.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,746 posts)I'll pass.
Warpy
(110,900 posts)and Wakefield, while having his license withdrawn, is still a hero to the antivaxers and has yet to face consequences for any of his crimes, especially against children. He lives in a swamky house on a lot of land in Texas, money rolling in from the gullible.
Future medical historians will undoubtedly see Wakefield as the worst quack of the late 20th century, a century that saw more than its share of outrageous quacks.
One thing it hasn't mentioned is the millions of dollars/pounds/other currencies that were wasted over the years disproving that crackpot article he wrote instead of studying autism, itself. We might know what determines whether people are high functioning or have serious developmental delays. We might even know whether it's one spectrum or several discrete conditions. And they might find something out there in left field that actually improves the ability of the severely impaired to function.
Unfortunately, those dollars went to refuting the absolute horseshit coming out of Wakefield and his cronies.
Richard D
(8,692 posts). . . I didn't realize how incredibly awful, criminal, sociopathic, and etc. he is.
Kali
(54,990 posts)the info is really good.
Richard D
(8,692 posts)Worth it.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,746 posts)I'm going to guess I already know most, maybe even all of what's in the video.
I do read very, very widely, including lots of things, including whole books, on disease and epidemiology. Of course, I could just watch it in 20 minutes segments, so the time involved won't feel quite so onerous.
Warpy
(110,900 posts)I confess I read part of his article and wondered if it was all bullshit because he wrote in the driest, most pedantic, densest Medicalese out there, meaning "I've got bupkus but I have a corporate sponsor and want to make a buck." I didn't get to the end, where he sort of admitted it but gave enormous weight to anecdata from parents. I hadn't realized he'd made that part up.
There was so much other stuff going on. I don't know if he started out to scam but just needed money and tossed off an article an ordinary RN (me) could see through, or if he wrote his article and believed his own bullshit. I don't honestly care at this point.
He's just done an appalling amount of damage, allowing diseases that had disappeared to return, making parents fearful, making children deathly sick, and wasting precious research dollars refuting his bullshit. He's truly evil, and I don't use that word lightly.
Yes, it's really worth watching.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,746 posts)I'm guessing Andrew Wakefield.
When I first heard about his claim that vaccines caused autism, I knew it was bullshit. I have a son who is on the spectrum, and it was obvious from day one he was different from other kids. And he is just barely on the spectrum.
Warpy
(110,900 posts)Most new parents are besotted and just don't notice things until they become glaringly obvious, and even then they're in denial. Good for you for spotting it.
Wakefield did another disservice, he demonized high functioning autism. Back in the good old days, they were just nerds, geeks, and oddballs. He medicalized it and demonized it to make a buck, and now adult high functioning autistic people are out there having to explain themselves on stages.
And he continues to rake in the money.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,746 posts)was that I belonged to a support group of brand new first time parents. Twelve sets of parents and their infants. We became a group shortly before the first baby was born, and stayed together nearly two years, although we moved to another state when my son was nine months old. But being able to see a bunch of brand new babies, how they were alike and how they were different, helped a lot.
Even so, my son, who was born in 1982, was not diagnosed until he was 18 years old and half way through his senior year of high school. Asperger's, which is no longer in the DSM, unfortunately. For the longest time I just didn't understand why he was so unlike others his age. Clearly he was incredibly smart. Reading up on it was incredibly helpful.
These days he's My Son The Astronomer whom I reference often here. He's currently in a PhD program in astronomy on the East Coast and is doing quite well. It took a long time, but he finally found his niche.
Warpy
(110,900 posts)Earlier intervention might have helped him navigate the nasty emotional minefield called high school, but that's it.
When I was growing up, there wasn't any such thing. When I worked in a state mental hospital, they'd barely discovered severe autism widely enough to diagnose it and didn't recognize high functioning autism. It's only in the last 15 years or so that they've finally recognized high functioning autism in women and, wonder of wonders, they're admitting it's a 1:1 parity with men, it's just wildly different in women.
In any case, without Wakefield, we might be on the way to understanding the genetic markers for bot autism as a disability and autism as an ability.
Congratulations to your son for finding his niche. May his career be long and distinguished.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,746 posts)I think his career *will* be long and distinguished, although I'm sure no one outside the astronomy community will ever hear of him.
What I like best about him is that I can call him up with random astronomy questions and he always answers them for me. I have never once heard him roll his eyes, even though I end up asking some of the same questions at different times.
MerryBlooms
(11,728 posts)Beaut!
Watched all the way through- great! I had No idea the anti vax crap was so diabolical. Wakefield should be in prison, and so should anyone who assisted him in promoting his scams. The parents who signed their children up for his criminal experiments... I have no words. I guess desperate people buy into all sorts of bullshit, but to agree to torturing children is something else- A cult.
dweller
(23,559 posts)Informative and entertaining
Will share with friends
✌🏻
Aussie105
(5,211 posts)I had the MMR vaccine as a kid.
Years later, my hair line started to recede, and it continues to this day.
Coincidence?
I've had the first astrazeneca dose, and now I'm worried about COVID-19, and I wasn't before.
Does the vaccine cause anxiety?
Can't be coincidence! Surely!
TalenaGor
(1,103 posts)I have family in the next town over - trumpers, xians etc....refused to get covid vaxed
-my mom died from covid in dec - they still wouldnt get vaxed
-in jan one of my cousins, who also lives there and her daughter got covid, cousin went to hosp for a week.....still wont get vaxxed....
-on the 15th of june posted on fb about how proud they were about not being vaxed
-5 days later they post they got covid - both of them in their 70's, struggling with it for nearly 3 weeks now...
-why? apparently they 'know a guy' who got sick from the vaccine....
-my house? no covid....we social distanced, masked, vaxxed....WEIRD!
no sense of irony at all with these people....