Autism Study a Fraud
For over a decade, scores of parents have been at odds with the decision on whether to vaccinate their children thanks to beliefs they were linked to autism. Most of the hysteria began back in 1998 when Dr. Andrew Wakefield released a study directly linking vaccinations with significantly increased chances of developing autism. That report, however, turned out to be a complete fraud after a British medical journal uncovered the doctor had directly manipulated the data. Following that study, parents took nearly every minor nuance of evidence as confirmation bias leading to the resurgence of previously eradicated diseases as vaccinations lulled. Even after the report's fraudulent outing, nearly half of America is still convinced autism is linked to vaccines.