Unpacking Vaccine Hesitancy and the Autism Myth

Send us Fan MailIn this episode, Jen & Carolyn tackle one of the most persistent and damaging myths in modern medicine: that vaccines cause autism.Despite being thoroughly debunked by decades of research, this false claim continues to drive vaccine hesitancy across communities. This has only been made worse by RFK, one of the loudest voices in the world of vaccine skepticism, being appointed to oversee the Health and Human Services department. So today, we’re going to explore where this myth came from, why it stuck around, and how we can move forward with science—and compassion—on our side.The Lancet Retraction: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60175-4BMJ (Brian Deer Investigation): https://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452Hviid et al. (2019): https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M18-2101Institute of Medicine Report (2004): https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2004/05/mmr-vaccine-and-autism-no-causal-relationshipTaylor et al. (2014): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X14006367WHO Vaccine Hesitancy: https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019CDC Autism Info: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/facts.html