Jabs, frauds and even more bad science

Well for episode 15 we thought it might be worth discussing the great Wakefield fraud, the MMR scandal, the lies and damage that were spread by that disgraced former doctor.

Join Simon, Kuro and Marinne for what turned out to be the hardest episode we have ever recorded. It took two days and four attempts to get everything recorded. It took 4 days to edit and cut down.

This is not an easy subject, we tried to keep lighthearted in it and we did cut out a lot of the darker aspects of the study that underlies the MMR fears. We added a trigger warning at 14:10 as we briefly discuss the experiments on the children. We sanitised it as much as possible but if you would like to skip that part, jump to 135 where you will hear a few seconds of music before we move on to less difficult aspects of the episode.

We make reference to a number of sources throughout the episode.  I would like to point you towards the excellent Abigail Thorn in a Philosophy Tube video “Vaccines & Freedom” where she discusses research and interviews people who have declined the Covid-19 vaccine and reviews the philosophy behind vaccine hesitancy.

My main source for everything was Brian Deer and his book, which I would highly recommend for anyone who wants to know the depths to which Wakefield sunk and the pain that was caused.

I quoted from a BMJ article when I called Wakefield a fraud, and that Journal has a number of interesting articles available freely online.

It is well established that Wakefield and Barr were working together prior to the study, again see both Deer and the BMJ for more details. And as for his money making schemes, those make up a great deal of interesting articles. Not to mention is measles jab patent some two years beforehand.

And lastly, vaccines DO NOT CAUSE AUTISM. Want to know more? See this meta analysis that considers studies covering 1.25m children across the world.


As ever, do get in touch with us via Twitter @AtypicalThePod where our DM's are open. We are also building up a Discord server and will release details of that soon.



Next up:

Future episodes might well include:

1. Trying to be successful, aka "what are you trying to achieve/aspire to against the force of your autism in your life and how constructive/destructive is it to force yourself out of your comfort zone"? 
2. "Fuck it I'm too old for th

As ever we thank you, our loyal listeners for sticking with us. We would love to hear from you and our Twitter is open @AtypicalThePod for messages and comments.

Have a topic you would like us to cover, or do you fancy joining us for a natter, maybe tell us about your area of interest or expertise and share these things with everyone.

We would also recommend our friend The Autistic Women for another great view on living with autism and our friends at the All Bets are Off podcast who cover addiction.