Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe

This pseudo-documentary gained some notoriety when it was included in the programming for the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, but then was suddenly dropped after festival co-founder Robert De Niro withdrew the invitation. A diatribe against standard MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccinations for young children, the fear-stoking Vaxxed underscores paranoid claims by an anti-vaccination movement that has been officially blamed for recent outbreaks of childhood diseases. Specifically, anti-vaccination forces believe that there is a link between vaccines and autism—a theory debunked by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), among other public health agencies and published studies. What makes Vaxxed unique among the examples of widely distributed misinformation about vaccinations is that it is directly tied to the discredited gastroenterologist, Andrew Wakefield, who started the scare in 1998 with the publication of a paper he co-authored in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet. In time, The Lancet disavowed the study and Wakefield was stripped of his license in 2010 for fraud and the use of junk science. But he carries on here as director of this film, which is largely comprised of testimonials by parents who claim their toddlers were perfectly fine until the MMR shot caused them to regress into autism. Vaxxed also heavily relies on recordings of a CDC insider who says that corruption, incompetency, and political pressure by Big Pharma are to blame for a government cover-up of vaccination issues. Flinging a lot of unsubstantiated numbers about, Vaxxed puts forth an irresponsible conspiracy-laden argument that is based on pure emotion. Not recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)