In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.
If people do not trust any vaccine that is developed, and therefore do not get the jab - already a risk in many countries thanks to anti-vaxxer movements - it could cost millions of lives, and not just because of coronavirus. A mistake, and the ensuing loss of trust, could jeopardise vaccines as a public health measure altogether.
Professor Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, told The Telegraph that concern was very real.
"We have a terrible anti-vaccine, anti-science movement in America. The anti-vaxxers are waiting in the wings for this like lions surrounding an injured impala on the savannah," he warned.
