I Want Your Fear Summary

The article, “I Want Your Fear” by Ryan Henderson goes in depth on the incorrect assumption that vaccines lead to autism. Henderson describes how the anti-vaccine movement started. The author claims that Andrew Wakefield caused the anti-vaccine movement, which began with a paper stating that the MMR vaccine caused autism and Crohn’s Disease. However, Wakefield’s claims hold no scientific weight and caused a mass hysteria. Wakefield does not have the credentials to make such claims as he is a medical doctor and not a vaccine scientist. This mass hysteria led people to believe that Wakefield’s new vaccine would be safe. In reality, this simply demonstrated a damaging business strategy used to only benefit Wakefield. Despite work done by scientists confirming that there exists no correlation between autism and vaccines, vaccination rates decreased. The majority of the frightened public oppose vaccinations now, which is immensely irresponsible. In reality, concrete scientific research proves vaccines do not cause autism and devastating effects can occur when people do not get vaccinated. …show more content…
Hundreds of studies have been conducted on autism and its possible link to vaccinations. The medical community agrees that autism results from abnormalities in the brain and that a vaccine would not cause autism. According to the article, “Autism-Vaccine Link” by WebMD, “Since that initial finding, 14 studies including millions of children in several countries consistently show no significant difference in autism rates between children who got the MMR vaccine than those who didn't.” Children getting autism right after a vaccination does not prove that the vaccination caused the autism. In reality, it remains a mere coincidence and autism does not result from these