Letter: Up steps Trump to promote autism-vaccination hoax

Treasure Coast
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The false claim that vaccinations cause autism originated in a fraudulent paper published in 1998 that has been totally repudiated. It was written by a quack named Andrew Wakefield who falsified evidence and used fraudulent methods.

Wakefield was charged with unethical, unprofessional behavior, and has been barred from medical practice (or malpractice) in the U.K. and Ireland.

(Those of us who worked with WHO, UNICEF and U.S. immunization programs were relieved to hear that.)

Unfortunately, enough innocent parents, some for citing religious reasons, withheld child immunization and thereby caused a significant increase in readily preventable diseases.

British Medical Journal Lancet, which first published Wakefield’s article, then repudiated it, calls the vaccination-autism claim “perhaps the most damaging medical hoax in the last 100 years.”

Now, along comes President Trump:  “I’ve been proven right all along. Vaccination causes autism. It’s really horrible. The doctors lied.  Do something. Save our children.”

If medical malpractice is enough to disbar a medical doctor, might it be enough to impeach a president?

Anthony Piel, Stuart

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