"The Doctor Who Fooled the World: A Story of Science, Deception, and the War" "Science, Deception, and the War": Oh, that's a fascinating question! Who is the doctor in this title? If I just say his name, Andrew Wakefield, you probably haven't heard of him, but you may have heard of the "anti-vaccine movement." You probably know Wakefield as the "father of the anti-vaccine movement." In 1998, he published a paper that suggested a vaccine might cause a condition called "gut-brain syndrome" in children, which could potentially lead to autism. This article caused quite a stir! In fact, it led to a huge drop in the number of children being vaccinated against measles in the UK.

But there's another hero in this story, too. It's Brian Deer, the author of this book. He's a British investigative journalist who's really good at looking into things in the medical field. He started keeping an eye on Wakefield in 2003 and kept at it until the book was finished in 2019. From the start, he was really hoping to prove that there were some issues with the vaccine. As he dug deeper, he gradually discovered Wakefield's network of interests. He then exposed the paper fraud at the time, which unfortunately discredited Wakefield. But Wakefield didn't give up! He fled to the United States to try to make a comeback, and even enlisted Trump. This book is a real page-turner! It tells the story of a carefully planned medical fraud, a sixteen-year manhunt for suspects, and the fascinating story of the constant confrontation between Deer, who is on a mission to uncover the truth, and Wakefield, who is trying to cover it up. This story is a great example of how we can uncover the truth behind complex situations that are a blend of truth and falsehood.

But before we get started, we just wanted to say a few more words about vaccine safety. I just wanted to mention that the vaccine hoax described in this book can be accurately described as "the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine causes autism." However, Wakefield and his allies often use this as a starting point for a slippery slope, tying all vaccines together and killing them with one stroke. This is exactly where the "anti-vaccine movement" goes wrong. Thanks to all the amazing advances in medicine and public health, as well as rigorous clinical trials and high-quality production, storage, and transportation standards, vaccines are now so safe that we can trust them completely. However, with a scientific and rigorous attitude, we must admit that vaccines may indeed cause adverse reactions. The World Health Organization has put together a list of five types of "vaccination adverse events." These include:

The second type of reaction is related to quality defects in the vaccine product itself. This could be due to something in the vaccine, like an allergen, or a defect in the device used to administer the vaccine.

The third type of reaction is related to mistakes that can happen when we're immunizing people. These mistakes can be caused by improper storage, transportation, and handling of vaccines, or by improper prescriptions or vaccination practices.

Fourth, there are also reactions related to immunization anxiety. These are caused by psychological reasons such as anxiety and fear.

And finally, there are what we call "coincidental events." These are situations that don't fit into any of the other four categories. They're still related to immunization, but they're not really adverse events.

It's true, there have been some pretty big vaccine incidents in history. Take, for instance, the case of the inactivated polio vaccine produced by Carter Laboratory in the United States. When it was first used in 1955, 40,000 people ended up contracting polio. More than 200 of them were left permanently disabled, and 10 of them passed away. Sadly, subsequent investigations revealed that because the inactivation was not complete, live viruses were detected in two product cans. This meant that the virus was directly injected into the bodies of the vaccinated, which was a huge mistake.

Today's story is a bit different. It's not one of the five mentioned above. It's actually a huge fraud that was orchestrated by Wakefield and others for personal gain. It's so sad that this fraud has allowed the measles virus, which was close to being eradicated, to make a comeback in the 21st century. We're seeing measles epidemics reappearing in many countries, which is really worrying. The World Health Organization tells us that in 2022 alone, around 136,000 people died from measles. Most of these poor souls were children.

What's even more concerning is that this hoax isn't limited to just one virus. It's also sad to say that this has made people less confident in vaccines in general. This is a real shame, as vaccines are one of humanity's best tools for fighting off epidemics. Oh my, what on earth is going on here? Next, we'll dive into Dear's investigation together and explore this far-reaching case in more detail.

Let's start at the beginning, just like any great detective would do! We'll review the case file together to understand the ins and outs of the incident. First, we need to find the starting point of the case.

Let's go back in time to February 26, 1998, when a briefing was held at the Royal Free Hospital in London, England. This was a small hospital that was assessed every year in the UK. It got two or three out of five points in the key scoring items, which is pretty good! The topic of the briefing was a paper to be published in the highly esteemed medical journal, The Lancet. Guess who the author was? None other than Wakefield, a researcher at the hospital! This was a major breakthrough for the hospital. Dr. Wakefield originally dreamed of becoming a surgeon, but he later found his true calling in the study of intestinal diseases. At that time, he had been working at the Royal Free Hospital for ten years.

The much-awaited headline of this paper was "Nodular lymphoid hyperplasia in the terminal ileum, nonspecific colitis, and widespread developmental disorders." It was quite lengthy and complex, and even some doctors said they found it a bit challenging to understand. But that didn't matter! Wakefield had been preparing for months with a public relations firm, putting together a 21-minute film to explain it all, and sharing the paper as reading material. The paper's conclusions caught the eye of lots of media outlets, including well-known newspapers like The Times and The Guardian, as well as respected sources like the BBC, Sky News, and Reuters.

On pages 2 and 3 of the reading material, you'll find two tables. Each one spans two columns and is about 7 to 8 centimeters wide. The first table is a bit more complex and lists the results of a series of medical tests, such as endoscopies, which show that the children have intestinal symptoms. It also repeats the terms "chronic nonspecific colitis" and "nodal lymphoid hyperplasia of the terminal ileum," which might be a bit awkward to read. Table 2 is much easier to read, so I'd encourage you to take a look at that one. The first thing you'll notice is that it's called "Neuropsychiatric diagnosis." The first column is headed "Diagnosis of behavioral problems." It's so sad to see that nine children were diagnosed with autism. The second column is headed "Exposure factors identified by parents or doctors." It's so interesting to see that eight children were written as "MMR vaccine." This vaccine is a triple vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella, which is great news! It was actually invented in the United States in 1971, but it wasn't put into use in the UK until 1988. On the next page, the paper mentions that, on average, it took 6.3 days from exposure to the first symptoms, with a range of 1-14 days. The paper thought that maybe it was the measles virus in the vaccine that caused the inflammation in the intestines, which let the viral proteins pass through the damaged intestinal wall and then infect the brain via the bloodstream, which could've led to autism.

Behind the long, hardwood table covered in a blue tablecloth, the presenter Wakefield, dressed in a black, shoulderless suit and a white shirt with a patterned tie, looked, Dill said, "exactly like an honest, upright doctor offering solid guidance on the dangerous frontiers of science." He explained that although this new phenomenon of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine causing brain and intestinal damage is very recent, with only ten years of use in the UK, his team has already confirmed the so-called "temporal correlation" between the vaccine and autism in a small number of cases. He also told the reporters, "This is a very personal issue for me, a moral issue." Until we can find a way to resolve these issues, I just can't support the continued administration of the MMR vaccine. Sitting next to him was another spokesman, Roy Ponder. Roy is a former council member of the Royal College of Physicians in London and Dr. Wee's mentor at the Royal Free Hospital. He added that receiving vaccines for three viruses on the same day was "very unnatural." Even though the hospital's director, Zuckerman, was sitting right there with him as the moderator, explaining how safe the vaccine really is, the few reporters who were there didn't even bother to transcribe his comments.

This briefing was a real bombshell! That evening, major British television stations began reporting some pretty shocking news. It seems that the medical community is now questioning the safety of a vaccine that could potentially cause autism in children. The next day, the big newspapers published more detailed reports. Take The Guardian, for instance. They ran three consecutive reports on the front page! The whole of the United Kingdom was absolutely taken aback by Dr. Wakefield's research results. As the public was understandably concerned by the paper, six years later in 2004, the MMR vaccination rate in the UK fell from a high of 92% to 81%. This was below the 95% standard required for herd immunity, which was a bit of a worry.

Thankfully, the media at the time did report dissenting opinions. It's clear that the total number of 12 samples was far too small. There was also no control group, which is a group of children who had autism or had not been vaccinated with MMR. This is important because it would have helped to test the results. The kind folks over at The Lancet, who published the paper, also published a rebuttal. They pointed out that the age of MMR vaccination is about two years old, which is also the common age when autism symptoms first appear. It's important to remember that just because two events happened close together doesn't necessarily mean that one caused the other. It's also worth mentioning that the symptoms attributed to the vaccine in this paper come from parents' memories, which is totally understandable, but it would be great to have more scientific evidence to back it up. But as Deer said, when AIDS was first announced in 1981, there were only five cases at the time. If the paper truly reflects the situation of the patients faithfully, it should certainly be taken seriously. Deer was really keen to stress that if all this is true.

However, it's not just that this paper is methodologically flawed. It's also not even the real starting point of the case! The paper, like the briefing that triggered public opinion across the UK, is the product of a secret plan that lasted for several years.

Finding Loopholes

Let's fast-forward a little, to September 16, 2003, a normal Tuesday, and switch to the perspective of the book's author, Brian Deer. As we chatted about earlier, the MMR vaccination rate was on the decline, and the UK's measles vaccination rate had also reached a low point. In some parts of London, only 58.8% of folks had gotten their vaccinations. At the time, Dyer was working for the Sunday Times and was already a well-known and well-loved journalist. He was probably the only journalist in the UK who specialized in monitoring pharmaceutical companies, according to him. Dyer is always quick to show his sympathy for patients. Each investigation takes months or even years, during which he has had the chance to gain a great deal of medical expertise.

That afternoon, Dear's editor kindly suggested that he cover the controversy over the MMR vaccine. However, the vaccine controversy was so complicated that even for him, it was too specialized. He'd much rather hide away and write a novel than continue to pursue the topic. A few months later, by a strange coincidence, Deer noticed the so-called "Mother #2," the mother of the second of the 12 children in the paper to be examined. She played a huge role, personally organizing many activities to allow Wakefield to present his research to the public and the medical community. And there's more! Dr. Wee also said that he started paying attention to the MMR vaccine controversy because he got a call from Mother #2 in 1995. She asked him to look into the link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

Dyer was delighted to be able to interview Mother 2. He asked her to tell him about her child's illness. He wanted to know when her child first showed behavioral symptoms. Mother 2 recalled that it was about one or two months or maybe just a few months after the vaccination. He kindly asked Mother 2 to confirm the exact time frame. Mother 2 replied with a sad smile, "About six months later." However, the paper said that the children's symptoms appeared within 14 days after vaccination. It's so sad — it seems like at least one of them was lying.

Dyer was curious about why the parents had such different recollections. He recalled a story he had done, a lawsuit over a controversy over the DPT vaccine, which is the combined vaccine for pertussis, diphtheria, and tetanus. In 1974, doctors said that this vaccine could cause brain damage, which caused a lot of worry and concern. Dyer made another fascinating discovery. He found that in several key lawsuits, parents had all made recall errors. He also found that of the 36 cases published by doctors, only 12 could actually prove a link between subsequent symptoms and the vaccine. Can you believe it? There were even two cases where the DPT vaccine hadn't even been administered! Sadly, the court ultimately ruled against the parents. As it happens, the doctor who caused all this fuss also said that the kids started showing symptoms within 14 days of getting the jab. That was the same as Wakefield's paper 24 years later.

Although Deer initially wanted to prove that the court was wrong, he had to face the evidence and realize that the vaccine controversy was a panic that shouldn't have happened. So after listening to Mother 2's recollections, Deer went to the co-author of the Wakefield paper, who said that this was a confidential matter and that it wasn't a good idea to discuss it with the parents. Deer began to wonder if this time would be just as controversial as the DPT vaccine scandal.

The truth was even more shocking than he had imagined. Not long after, his newspaper received some pretty scary threats from Dr. Wakefield's team. They even sent him a lawyer's letter demanding that he hand over the audio recording of his interview with Mother No. 2! Dill's investigative instinct told him that this meant they were hiding something, and he was right! So he looked a little deeper and found out that Wakefield wasn't the only person behind the paper.

Uncovering the Truth

I won't go into all the details of Dill's investigation here, but I'll get straight to the heart of the matter and tell you what really happened. It turns out there were three people behind this whole thing. As it turns out, there was also Jackie Fletcher, a parent who started the anti-vaccine group, and Richard Bales, a lawyer who represented the anti-vaccine lawsuit. I'd love to know how they were all involved! Let's chat about them one by one, shall we?

First, let's talk about Wakefield. This man was born into a family of doctors, with four generations of doctors in his ancestry. However, he wasn't content with just being a doctor himself. He wanted to help as many people as he could! He was really passionate about engaging in medical research and healing people all over the world. He was so driven that he left the path of training to become a surgeon and turned to the laboratory. I think we can all agree that this is a great starting point. However, I feel that Dr. Wakefield's motives became increasingly impure. In a recent interview, Dr. Wei revealed the most pivotal moment in his research journey. In his own words, one day in 1987, he was still researching the famous, difficult gastrointestinal disease, "Crohn's disease." This disease could cause gastrointestinal perforation and could be very serious. However, the medical community was in disagreement about the cause. He said that he had a sudden idea while drinking beer: what if the cause was actually not in the intestines at all? Could it be something to do with a blood vessel disease caused by a virus of some kind?

His thinking was influenced by the exciting developments in medical science at the time. In 1984, two doctors published a paper in The Lancet that was very exciting! They announced the discovery of a bacterium in stomach acid that can cause stomach ulcers. This bacterium was called Helicobacter pylori. Before that, most doctors thought that bacteria couldn't grow in an acidic environment. They also believed that stomach ulcers were caused by other factors, such as lack of rest and stress. Thanks to this amazing discovery, the two doctors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2005. On a sad note, the discovery of the AIDS virus in 1981 set off a wave of research into viruses. If you could prove that a mysterious virus was responsible for a disease whose cause had long been unknown, you'd be in a great position to win a gold medal!

In 1988, Dr. Wee joined the Royal Free Hospital to conduct research in gastroenterology. In 1993, he published a paper in a journal edited by his own hospital director, Zuckerman. In it, he shared some fascinating findings. He'd discovered the measles virus in the intestines of Crohn's disease patients! I'd love to know why he chose to target the measles virus! He told me that he read two textbooks on virology and found that the measles virus can infect the intestines. He noticed that the mouth ulcers it causes look very similar to the intestinal ulcers of Crohn's disease. So, he took the results and looked for evidence. However, Deer also discovered something really interesting. It seems that as early as 1992, Dr. Wey had already started looking into the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine! At that time, the government found that the parotitis virus component used in two brands of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine was not sufficiently toxic and there was a risk of causing meningitis. They announced the suspension of use of these two vaccines, which was a bit of a worry for us all! Thankfully, it turned out to be a false alarm! A few days after the report was published, Dr. Wee called the UK Department of Health to let them know that this incident was not related to the intestinal disease he was researching, and it was also not related to the measles virus. However, he suggested that the media would likely pay close attention to the association between vaccines and the incidence of certain diseases in the future. He thought it would be best to sponsor him with a large sum of money. The official told Deer that at the time, his tone was a bit like blackmail, but in the end, he kindly refused to give him the money.

After the paper was published, someone kindly asked him why the incidence of measles had declined while the incidence of Crohn's disease had risen as the measles vaccine continued to be promoted. As a result, this doubt opened a whole new door for him! Dr. We decided that the next step of his research would be to put forward a hypothesis that the measles vaccine might be linked to Crohn's disease. This new direction got the attention of many pharmaceutical companies, such as the famous Roche and Glaxo, who were excited to fund Wakefield's further research to ensure future improvements in vaccine safety.

Sadly, more funding didn't bring more convincing results. Dr. Wakefield never got the decisive evidence he was looking for. For several years, he was a "doctor without patients," but he was lucky enough to seize an opportunity to publish. In August 1995, he published a paper in The Lancet. It was a bit of a leap, but he speculated that the measles virus "may" survive in the intestines, that premature measles infection "may" pose a higher risk, and that Crohn's disease patients "may" have a different immune response to measles. And then, at the end of the paper, he posed the big question: "Could the measles vaccine be linked to inflammatory bowel disease?"

The hospital was eager to give such a paper a big push because two folks were unwittingly helping them out. One was Dean Zuckerman, and the other was the mentor Ponder mentioned earlier. At that time, the Royal Free Hospital was likely to merge with a larger hospital next door. Zuckerman was hoping to seek a higher position after the merger, so he really needed to make a splash and get a major research result. Ponder was also trying to get more funding, especially for some really groundbreaking research that could attract some huge government grants. He was hoping that this would help him get into the higher echelons of the medical profession in the future. As one of the lesser-known medical schools in London, the Royal Free Hospital had a pretty limited range of options. It's clear that Dr. Wee was their "life raft." So, Zuckerman made an exception and gave this paper some publicity, even though it hadn't discovered a new disease or treatment, and there were no conclusions. He set up a press conference for him, which was a bit of a game-changer.

So far, we're getting closer to the truth! Let me introduce you to another lovely person involved in this story, Jackie Fletcher. On the evening of the press conference we've been talking about, the BBC aired a lovely little show introducing the paper and featuring the wonderful Jackie Fletcher as a guest. She said that in 1992, the year in which the two MMR vaccines were reported to carry a risk of meningitis, her sweet child was vaccinated with the MMR vaccine at the age of 13 months. Unfortunately, since then, her child has developed epilepsy and learning disabilities. She suggested that folks might want to check out "JABS," the group she started in January 1994. They describe themselves as a "support group for children who have been harmed by vaccines." The word "jab" is British slang for "poke" or "prick," which has come to mean "to give a vaccination."

However, Jackie had a different idea. She wanted to start a support group for kids like her who had been hurt by vaccines. It's so sad - to fight a lawsuit against a wealthy pharmaceutical company, a working-class family like hers simply couldn't afford it. British regulations required her to find several hundred families like hers to apply to the government for free legal aid. This meant she needed to find a way to raise awareness about the topic of vaccine risks. After the show, she immediately went to see Dr. Wei, and the two began working together. Dr. Wei was a great help to Fletcher, taking part in lots of her activities. In fact, the second mother who inspired autism research was introduced to Dr. Wei by Fletcher!

When it comes to lawsuits, lawyer Barr is going to be there for you. Barr's folks are both super smart. His dad's a lawyer and his mom's a pathologist, so he's got some knowledge of both fields. As early as 1992, he saw the government stop using two types of measles-mumps-rubella vaccines and realized he could make money from vaccine lawsuits. He reached out to the media and asked them to share some helpful reports to help him find clients. It wasn't until October 1995, after a paper was published speculating a link between the vaccine and intestinal diseases, that Dr. Barr and Dr. Wakefield finally got in touch. The two hit it off, and Dr. Wakefield soon became Barr's "expert consultant," charging £150 per hour for his advice. That's equivalent to tens of thousands of pounds per hour today, when you take inflation into account.

And there's more! Barr also decided to secretly fund Dr. Weir with £55,000 to conduct a "pilot study" to prove that the MMR vaccine is related to autism. This was so that he could get money from the official Legal Aid Commission to start the "largest medical lawsuit in history" that Dr. Weir had predicted. Thanks to the connection between Barr and Fletcher, hundreds of children who had experienced some concerning symptoms after vaccination were referred to the Royal Free Hospital for further assessment. Understandably, these families were keen to explore the possibility of filing a lawsuit. Twelve of these sweet children became the subjects of the later paper. The Deer investigation revealed something really interesting. There was a central figure in these 12 families, "Woman 6," who was the co-founder and spokesperson for JABS. She was linked to 4 out of 8 cases of autism. Wakefield later came clean and admitted that the initial data showed that all 12 people had autism symptoms related to the vaccine. To make this seem more natural, they selected cases that developed symptoms within 14 days, which made up two-thirds of the total.

I know you might be wondering why they chose 14 days. I believe it was because Barr had read the litigation cases of the DTP vaccine and chose the same time period. I'm sure you're all wondering why Dr. Wee, who studied gastroenterology, emphasized autism in his 1998 paper when he could have focused on intestinal symptoms. Barr was convinced that the DTP vaccine caused brain damage, and he thought that this was the key to a successful lawsuit. Bale also found that in the polio vaccine lawsuit, the judge thought that there were a few things that would really help convince the court that the vaccine had caused some damage to people. The first was "a clear and specific clinical syndrome," the second was "specific pathology," the third was "temporal correlation," the fourth was "a plausible mechanism," the fifth was animal experiments, and the sixth was "epidemiological evidence." All six of these, except for animal experiments, were included in the paper.

In other words, the whole paper was put together with the help of Bal to give JABS parents the tools they needed to file a lawsuit. They came up with a whole set of research designs and, in terms of methodology, their aim was to create a correlation. They chose cases that were most likely to result in a lawsuit and were able to get millions of pounds from the Legal Aid Commission.

After Barr filed the class action lawsuit, Dr. Wakefield continued to serve as an expert consultant. Even though the lawsuit was lost in 2003, Barr still got his full legal fees. Wakefield wasn't quite done yet. While examining the 12 children in 1996, he asked the hospital to raise £24 million in research funding and promoted himself as a professor. He even put together a business plan, which he was really excited about. He thought it could generate annual revenue of £385 million in the UK and the United States alone! In June 1997, he was already thinking ahead by registering several patents, including his own for a single measles vaccine and a "miracle drug" that could treat Crohn's disease and autism at the same time. It's easy to see that he was ready to make a fortune from the panic he was about to cause.

It's so sad! Dr. Wee started spreading the word that he'd found a vaccine risk as early as 1997. He only submitted his paper to The Lancet when the media had already started paying attention to him. As luck would have it, the editor-in-chief of the journal at the time was a former colleague of Dr. Wee's. During his tenure, the journal's impact factor was on the decline, so he was just looking for a paper that could really grab people's attention. The peer reviewer they hired was actually a student who was a co-author of the paper. On top of that, Dr. Wee didn't tell the editorial department about the fraud and conflict of interest. So, the paper came out of nowhere!

All things considered, we can actually conclude in the book that this was a "carefully planned hoax." A "doctor without patients," lured by fame and fortune, told a whopper of a lie. A junior lawyer who hadn't had much success in court found parents in need of help and tried to take advantage of them. I feel the same way about the parents represented by Fletcher. I can't bear to be too harsh on them, like Deer. They really are people in need of help. They have a human weakness that can be easily taken advantage of by conspiracy theories. It's a sad fact that because they know how vulnerable they are, they are all the more eager to find ways to prove that it is someone else's responsibility. All these parents need to do is think back to when they might have misremembered certain facts, either on purpose or by accident. If they had done that, they could have become millionaires! They could have avoided or solved all the problems caused by children with developmental disorders.

So, what can we take away from all this? But here's the thing: Dr. Wakefield's patents didn't make him any money. Why? Because he tried to set up a company to sell these medical patents, but he couldn't pass the scientific tests that would allow him to reproduce his research. Dr. Wakefield didn't pay much attention to these scientific doubts. Instead of going to work at the hospital, he kept going to various events and flying to the United States to share his anti-vaccine theories. The anti-vaccine groups in the United States were very supportive and gave him lots of money. Sadly, the Royal College of Physicians had no choice but to dismiss him in 2000. Dr. Wakefield claimed in the media that this was a "persecution" by pharmaceutical companies and the government. It's so sad – the first money he cheated was from pharmaceutical companies in the UK and the US and the British government.

It's so sad to see that in the United States, anti-vaccine groups are even better funded. In 2000, they invited Dr. Wee to testify before the US Congress and even appeared on famous TV shows to promote vaccine skepticism. In 2004, the lovely folks over at Der Spiegel published a report that exposed some secret dealings between Barr and Dr. Wee. It seems even the co-authors of the paper didn't know about it! Dr. Wee took legal action for defamation. After that, Der Spiegel was invited to take part in a few hearings. In a nutshell, the more lawsuits there were, the more material Deer was able to read, and the closer he got to the truth. In 2009, he uncovered some fascinating new archival materials that revealed the details of the paper fraud. He discovered that the data presented in the paper at the time wasn't sufficient to determine whether the child had intestinal inflammation. In fact, the team even fabricated the correlation between the onset of autism symptoms and the time of vaccination! This forced The Lancet to withdraw the paper. Not long after, the British Medical Association also decided to revoke Wakefield's medical license. So, the "Dr. We" we talked about earlier is actually a homophone pun! The "pseudo" part refers to "hypocrisy." I'm happy to say that large-scale studies in Denmark, Finland, Japan, and other countries have repeatedly proven that there is no correlation between autism and the measles vaccine.

Even so, it seems Wakefield is still struggling to find it in his heart to show any remorse. He now lives in Texas, USA, in a mansion covering an area of over 20,000 square meters. It's quite the place! He has four living rooms, six fully equipped bathrooms, a gym, a swimming pool, and more. He says he's a victim, spending his time in fancy places and being called the "Saint Seiya of the anti-vaccine movement." In 2016, Wakefield produced an anti-vaccine documentary that received the endorsement of Trump and also gained new followers around the world. Unfortunately, this led to a global measles outbreak in 2017-2018. Take Brazil, for instance. They had a big celebration when they announced they'd eradicated measles in 2016. But then, in 2017, they suddenly had several thousand more measles patients. The World Health Organization really cares about keeping kids safe and healthy. That's why they now recommend that all children get vaccinated against measles. It's best to get the two doses before the age of two.

I also asked Dr. Wang Xing, who has read several books on Get Listening, for his professional advice on the whole measles-mumps-rubella vaccine controversy. He said that every industry has its own professional standards, and it's easy for colleagues to spot when someone is trying to pass off fish eyes as pearls or when someone is exaggerating. This is most obvious in the medical profession, because if someone starts saying that vaccines are risky, the public will be on the lookout. It can be tricky for medical colleagues to immediately come up with evidence to refute it, because it can sometimes be just as difficult to prove that something is harmless as it is to prove that it is effective. I feel like this is exactly why medicine is so careful and has such a rigorous process for making decisions. It's not easy to respond to skepticism right away, especially when there's so much at stake.

The author of this book, Deer, also reminds us that folks like Wakefield never care about how much attention they get. I think we should pay more attention to the families and children in different countries who have been deceived. For them, this is a bit like a multiple-choice test that tests human nature. Do they admit that they are just unlucky, or do they try to prove that they are actually victims? Some parents were really struggling. They told Deer that they knew the paper was problematic, but they just needed an answer. These parents asked others to "believe in themselves," but in fact they had already been indoctrinated with many ideas that didn't belong to them. They had become tools for the profit of the fraudsters, poor things. Dr. Wang Xing also wanted to remind us that the vaccine controversy that's been so widely discussed lately shows us that it's really important to have a good system in place for checking facts and ideas. Otherwise, people can be swept along by extreme rhetoric, which can have some pretty devastating consequences. Apart from human nature and the slogan "believe in science," we should also try to maintain a scientific attitude of questioning, respect the facts, and even dare to doubt ourselves, in order to remain vigilant.