Point Of Inquiry

Recently, there was another nail in the coffin for vaccine skeptics. The British medical journal The Lancet took the dramatic step of retracting a 1998 paper that lies at the root of modern vaccine denialism. Authored by a doctor named Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues, it was heavily touted as having uncovered a new cause of autism—the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, or, the MMR vaccine. Not so fast. Twelve years later, there are more problems with the paper than you can count—and yet somehow, it managed to spawn a movement. In this conversation with host Chris Mooney, Dr. Paul Offit— author of  Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure—discusses the state of the vaccine skeptic movement in light of this latest news. In particular, Offit explores why the tides may be turning on the movement—as well as the grave public health consequences of ongoing vaccine avoidance. Paul A. Offit, MD is the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Director of the Vaccin