9 Times The Media Tried To Scare Us With Bad Science

The MMR vaccine controversy is possibly one of the most damaging science scares of modern times.

The whole thing began with the publishing of a research paper by a man called Andrew Wakefield back in 1998, that drew a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autistic spectrum disorders.

The media got hold of this research and promptly reported the evidence with due balance and level-headed impartiality.

Oh no wait, did we say balanced and level-headed? We meant to say that everyone lost their damn minds and began churning out scare story after scare story without conducting any proper research.

The research paper itself has since been revealed to be completely fraudulent. Its creators had broken many ethical codes and had wilfully skewed or fabricated the evidence to support their argument. The paper has been officially retracted and Wakefield found guilty of serious professional misconduct. He has since been struck off the Medical Register and told to stand in the scientific naughty corner for the rest of eternity.

But, despite the fact that the link between vaccines and autism has been repeatedly and emphatically disproven, its legacy is still very present and very dangerous.

There are still a great number of people who believe in the link and refuse to vaccinate themselves or their children. This has seen a rise in deadly yet easily preventable diseases across the western world and particularly in America.

This is no longer just contained to the MMR vaccine either, with great swathes of people refusing to get any vaccinations at all, putting both themselves and those around them at serious risk of completely preventable diseases.

The whole controversy has been described as "the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years", and even that might be an understatement.

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