Are you immune to hysteria?

[thebitterguy]

Apparently, the "scientist" who published the MMR/Autism study received £ 400,000 from lawyers who were suing the manufacturers of MMR vaccines.

Whoops.

Comments

[absinthe-dot-ca.livejournal.com]

Wakefield never apologized, but if I recall correctly, every single one of his co-authors later recanted. The MMR vaccine story is an interesting case-study of why the media should either (a) learn something about basic science before they go spouting off, or (b) shut the heck up entirely. But (b) will never happen, and our sun will probably die out before (a) does, leaving me with nothing but a headache.

[thebitterguy]

Well, is The Lancet normally that disreputable a source?

[absinthe-dot-ca.livejournal.com]

Actually, the Lancet article isn't really the problem (at least to me) - it's the way it was picked up by the mainstream press and repeated ad nauseum, but the news that the study had been pretty much completely discredited was buried at the back of the newspaper if it was there at all.