On this day in 1998, Andrew Wakefield’s paper purporting a link between the MMR vaccine and autism was published in The Lancet. Not the first time such a link had been hinted at but this was the first “study” (actually a case report series) to gain the traction it did.
The power of the media and especially the internet echo chamber in all its glory. For sure, one of the most consequential examples along with Peter Duesberg’s HIV/AIDS denialism.