A handful of anti-vaccine leaders, who mistakenly believe that vaccines cause autism, continue to fight a ground war of disinformation.
Despite decades of rigorous research, proving time and time again that vaccines are safe, and copious evidence that vaccines work, saving an estimated 732,000 children’s lives and preventing millions of hospitalizations over the last 20 years, the scientific community continues to fend off assaults from a relatively small number of ardent anti-vaccine advocates.
“It’s really vile, predatory behavior,” Dr. Peter Hotez, professor and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said of the anti-vaccine leadership. The conversation continued to digress, Washington said, with Kennedy suggesting that she"was somehow being disloyal to African Americans."
Hotez said he found it"interesting that Sharpton's exit excuse was that his people couldn't ensure that ‘both sides would be heard," noting that putting pro- and anti-vaccine sides on equal footing sends a"chilling message that the misinformation from the anti-vax camp is somehow equivalent to the consensus of the scientific community."
By the time Kennedy, who was to headline the event, took the microphone, the forum had stretched well beyond its allotted 3.5 hours and a representative from the church cut the event short. Kennedy was ushered out a side door and the audience reconvened on the sidewalk just outside to hear him rail against the pharmaceutical industry’s role in creating what he called “the sickest generation in American history.
"We're talking about something that's so serious. You're trying to convince parents to put their own children and the children in their community at risk," he added.Washington says her phone call with Kennedy was especially troubling because there’s a history of African Americans being mistreated by the medical establishment, a topic that she’s written extensively about.
While there’s no indication of widespread vaccine hesitancy in the black community and black children receive the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine at comparable rates to white children, concerns about exploitation"contribute to potential distrust of vaccination and other health care interventions," explained Dr. Kristen Feemster, director of research for the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
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