Doubt: The Man Behind The Myth

Prognosis: Misconception

Bloomberg

Health & Fitness, Science

4.1 • 838 Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2021

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Meet the man behind all the myths: Andrew Wakefield. Wakefield’s retracted 1998 study linking autism to vaccines helped kickstart the modern vaccine hesitancy movement. We’ll explore the forces that helped propel Wakefield into the spotlight and show how groundwork Wakefield laid decades ago helped seed the mistrust we’re seeing in the age of the coronavirus.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	What could you do if your data was working for you and not against you? With Bloomberg delivering
0:07.3	enterprise data directly to your systems, you get easy access to the details you want, optimized for
0:14.1	higher level analysis, and financial data experts committed to helping you maximize your every move.
0:24.0	Our data is made for more, so you can show the world what you're made of. Visit Bloomberg.com slash enterprise data to learn more.
0:31.5	Good morning to all of you. My name is George Hastings, and I'm a special master of the United States Court of Federal Claim.
0:39.8	It's June 2007, and Special Master George Hastings is just kicking off new proceedings.
0:46.5	Special masters are sort of like judges.
0:49.6	Hastings is overseeing a case that involves a 12-year-old girl with autism named Michelle Sidiot.
0:55.8	He says there are two reasons why everyone has gathered here in a nondescript room of the
1:01.2	National Courts Building in Washington, D.C. The first purpose of this hearing is to determine
1:07.2	whether Michelle's own autism and her other conditions were vaccine caused.
1:13.2	But the second reason they're here is much bigger than this one individual case.
1:19.1	Nearly 5,000 other claims like Michelle's have also been filed.
1:23.7	Each one alleges a child has developed autism or a similar disability after being given their routine, measles, mumps, and rebella vaccine, the MMR shot.
1:35.2	In this hearing, today and over the next three weeks, we will hear not only about Michelle's own condition, but also extensive expert testimony concerning the petitioner's first
1:46.0	general causation theory. That is the general theory that MMR vaccines and thimerosol
1:53.5	containing vaccines can combine to cause autism. These proceedings will not actually take place in a
2:00.2	courtroom, but in front of a trio of judicial
2:02.7	officials called Special Masters. Their job is to resolve complaints filed with what's known
2:08.4	as the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
2:14.7	This little-known program is where people who believe they were injured by routine shots in the U.S. go to make their case.
2:23.3	It exists as an alternative to suing drug makers.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bloomberg, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bloomberg and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.