Researchers long ago rejected the theory that vaccines cause autism, yet many parents don't believe them. Can scientists bridge the gap between evidence and doubt?
This week, the open-access journal PLoS Biology investigates why the debunked vaccine-autism theory won't go away. Senior science writer/editor Liza Gross talks to medical anthropologists, science historians, vaccine experts, social scientists, and pediatricians to explore the factors keeping the dangerous notion alive - and its proponents so vitriolic.
Pediatrician Paul Offit has made it his mission to set the record straight: vaccines don't cause autism. But he won't go on Larry King Live - where he could reach millions of viewers - or anyplace celebrity anti-vaccine crusaders like Jenny McCarthy appear. ''Every story has a hero, victim, and villain,'' he explains. ''McCarthy is the hero, her child is the victim - and that leaves one role for you.''
When she read that hecklers were issuing death threats to spokespeople who simply reported studies showing that vaccines were safe, anthropologist Sharon Kaufman dropped her life's work on aging to study the theory's grip on public discourse. To Kaufman, a researcher with a keen eye for detecting major cultural shifts, these unsettling events signaled a deeper trend. ''What happens when the facts of bioscience are relayed to the public and there is disbelief, lack of trust?'' Kaufman wondered. ''Where does that lead us?''