John Oliver’s Message to Anti-Vaxxers, Slow-Vaxxers: “Memes Are Not Science”

By now, you’ve probably heard the hoopla about a supposed link between vaccines and autism, which comes from a thoroughly debunked study by Andrew Wakefield, the discredited researcher Oliver calls “the Lance Armstrong of doctors.” Misinformation from figures like Wakefield, actor Rob Schneider, and, yes, even internet memes can lead to a precipitous drop in vacination rates, which in turn clears the way for resurgences of once-eliminated diseases like the measles outbreak currently affecting Minnesota’s Somali population. And while people who reject vaccines outright are thankfully still pretty rare, there are plenty of parents out there wit

http://www.slate.com