In the Wake of Wakefield
Seriously...27 Feb 2018

In the Wake of Wakefield

Twenty years ago, in February 1998, one of the most serious public health scandals of the 20th century was born, when researcher, Andrew Wakefield and his co-authors published a paper in the medical journal The Lancet suggesting a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. As we know, in the years that followed, Wakefield's paper was completely discredited as "an elaborate fraud" and retracted. Attempts by many other researchers to replicate his "findings" have all failed and investigations unearthed commercial links and conflicts of interests underpinning his original work. Wakefield himself was struck off the medical register.

And yet, the ripples of that episode are still being felt today all over the world as a resurgent anti-vaccine movement continues to drive down inoculation rates, particularly in developed Western societies, where measles rates have rocketed particularly in Europe and the United States.

But the Wakefield scandal hasn't just fostered the current ant-vax movement but has played a key role in helping to undermine trust in a host of scientific disciplines from public health research to climate science and GM technology.

Through the archive, science journalist Adam Rutherford explores the continuing legacy of the anti-vaccine movement on the anniversary of one of its most notorious episodes, and explore its impact on health, on research and on culture both at home and abroad.

Episoder(484)

Stealing Power

Stealing Power

Meter tampering means altering a meter to prevent it from fully recording how much electricity or gas is being used, or bypassing the meter completely to energy usage being recorded at all. It may see...

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The Club Nobody Wants to Join

The Club Nobody Wants to Join

There Is a club that no high school principal in the USA wants to join, but they are all incredibly grateful that its there. Because in the event of the worst possible scenario happening, they will ne...

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Searching for Butterflies

Searching for Butterflies

In the mountains of Latakia, Syria, Mudar Salimeh devotes much of his time to searching for butterflies. A geologist, artist, and nature lover, Mudar's fascination with butterflies began in the spring...

19 Jul 202428min

Brood X

Brood X

Every 17 years in the eastern United States, a roaring mass of millions of black-bodied, red-eyed, thumb-length insects erupt from the ground. For a few glorious weeks the periodical cicadas cover the...

9 Jul 202428min

Stoppage Time for Scunthorpe

Stoppage Time for Scunthorpe

When Bury FC was expelled from the Football League after 125 years, the government commissioned a fan-led review of football's financial stability. Centring the importance of football clubs to hundred...

5 Jul 202428min

The City That Stayed at Home

The City That Stayed at Home

At the last general election, three of the four seats with the lowest turnout, where the lowest number of eligible people came out to vote, were in Hull. Alex Forsyth sits down with people who stay at...

28 Jun 202428min

Living Without My Smartphone

Living Without My Smartphone

A group of teenagers agree to give up their smartphones for 5 school days. The phones are locked in a box, and our subjects pick up their old style “brick” phone instead. What’s the best and worst o...

25 Jun 202428min

The Beauty of Everyday Things

The Beauty of Everyday Things

Poet Ian McMillan has a gift for the art of small pleasures; the joy of close observation; revelling in everyday things, places and encounters; describing and re-describing them endlessly. In the comp...

21 Jun 202428min

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