From: Liquid Wind | #042
I mean, I guess you could choose to disbelieve the entire medical community (some people do!) but given the incredible things they've done for any indicator of health you could ask for (life expectancy, infant mortality rates, etc.) over the past hundred years I'm not sure why you would.
some things are getting worse, autism for instance just mysteriously keeps becoming extremely more prevalent
Whole lot of things go into this... part of it is diagnosis, though there does seem to be a genuine rise as well.
It isn't vaccines though. That entire paranoia is all based on literally one publication that has since been retracted by all but two of its co-authors, including Wakefield, the main author.
Wakefield lost his medical license for professional misconduct in his improper research practices, including having a patent for an alternative vaccine, and drawing a conclusion that the study was in no way adequate to make.
A large number of studies have been done since. The Wakefield results were not reproduced. The paper has been retracted. But it has permanently screwed up the medical system because people remember that controversy.
And now you get all these people not vaccinating their kids, in ridiculously high percentages in some area, which endangers not only their own kids, but other kids.
(Sorry, that's one I feel pretty strongly about)
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##Alec