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RE: Finish the following sentence: The MMR vaccine causes [BLANK]
I guess there will always be a few con artists like Wakefield, and a certain percentage of the public that makes decisions based on faith/feelings over science. Really negligent reporting by the media here, I think they are the party that we should expect a lot more of. Would be great if we had some kind of panel of scientists to check the accuracy of scientific reporting, but then maybe that would lead to less science stories in general in the media .... very difficult issue.
Con artist is precisely the term, yes. I think the media, in the UK at least, got their figures burnt for this event. Reporting has got a lot better since. Our role out of the HPV vaccine has been a huge success here, that would almost certainly not have been the case if the media had gone for the hyperbolic reporting of rumours again.
Great to hear that the media has changed its ways a bit. Also in New Zealand there has been some coverage about how the anti-VAXers increase the overall incidence of the disease.