Because if you don't think that Andrew Wakefield is still largely responsible for this happening, I'd like to know why he continues to bang the broken drum of his own fraudulent theories like any disgraced snake-oil salesman would. Granted, he's probably foolish enough to think that his constant promotion of anti-vaccination woo isn't responsible for the rise in cases of measles worldwide, but as this article from the Guardian helpfully points out, he's openly getting anti-vax politicians elected in Texas, which has one of the worse rates of measles cases in the US. And this paragraph is especially telling:
But Wakefield’s most substantial contribution to Texas appears to be the network of autism-related charities and businesses he has been affiliated with, and in some instances drew six-figure salaries from, from the early 2000s onwards.
So much for the Hippocratic Oath. There's a very powerful profit motive in promoting quackery, and it appears Wakefield would take the almighty dollar in a heartbeat over the health and safety of children - actually, of anyone - threatened by a resurgence of preventable diseases caused by science-free opposition to vaccination. And I can't even feign surprise at that.
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