Why science stands supreme in the face of so much ignorance
From vaccines to GM food, there's no shortage of contrarians who will never let the facts speakfor themselves
- Climate change does not exist
- Evolution never happened
- The moon landing was fake
- Vaccinations can lead to autism
- Genetically modified food is evil.
Over the years, I have had my share of altercations with angry people on the last two items, some even quite recently. In the early 2000s, I started writing articles casting doubt on the original paper published by Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues in the British medical journal The Lancet claiming the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) childhood vaccine could cause autism.
More recently, I wrote in my daily column My Take (May 28, 2013) defending genetically modified food after millions of people marched against the biotechnology and the modified seeds giant Monsanto.
I was initially sceptical about GM food but came around to its safety a long time ago. A confession: I bought shares in Monsanto, having been alerted to this "evil" company when Greenpeace Hong Kong launched its campaign against GM food in the 1990s. Boy, I wish I had held on to those shares!
In February 1998, Wakefield and co-researchers at the Royal Free Hospital in London published a controversial study of 12 children with autism and other developmental disorders in The Lancet. The paper claims there is a possible link between the MMR jab, autism and Crohn's disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease.
The Lancet was criticised from the start by experts for publishing the low-quality paper with scant evidence and sloppy research. It eventually retracted it, but only after many years. Unfortunately, the now discredited link between MMR and autism caught on like wildfire in many Western countries. Today, like the denial of climate change, it is being championed by activists who considered Wakefield a martyr to a vast conspiracy by big drug companies and worldwide health authorities.
As National Geographic puts it, "doubting science has consequences".