Description

The University of Central Florida (UCF) Forum is a weekly series of opinion columns presented by the UCF News & Information. The columns are the opinions of the writers, who serve on the UCF Forum panel of faculty members, staffers and students for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday at UCF Today and then broadcast between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday on WUCF-FM (89.9).

Publication Date

5-11-2016

Keywords

Gatekeepers; Misinformation; Andrew Wakefield; The Lancet; Healthy society; Journalists; Diversity; Bias; Mass media; Political dysfunction; Electronic culture

Introduction

Andrew Wakefield, a British doctor who lost his medical license in 2010, falsely claimed in a 1998 scientific paper published in The Lancet that measles, mumps and rubella vaccines cause autism and Crohn’s disease. His claims, though bogus, were widely reported and led to a decline in vaccination rates and new outbreaks of measles and mumps.

Notes

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Collection

UCF Forum

Publisher

University of Central Florida

UCF Forum note

Information presented on this website is considered public information (unless otherwise noted) and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credit is requested. We recommend that UCF data be acquired directly from a UCF server and not through other sources that may change the data in some way. While UCF makes every effort to provide accurate and complete information, various data such as names, telephone numbers, etc. may change prior to updating. UCF welcomes suggestions on how to improve UCF Today and correct errors. UCF provides no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability or completeness of furnished data.

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