Question

As conclusively as is possible, research has demonstrated that there is no link between autism and vaccines and, yet, people continue to believe the link is present. Why do you think people continue to believe this? If you were talking to someone who holds this belief, what would you say or do? Why?

Answer 1

Andrew Wakefield was the first researcher who claimed that his research shows that there's a clear link between vaccination and autism as well as other gastrointestinal disease. Though his research was proved to lack enough evidence his report was backed by lawsuits by parents of kids affected by autism who believed that vaccination is the cause of autism in their kids. It also had lot of media coverage. Therefore this lie is widespread and people want to link autism to certain cause that is under their control. So though it's a false belief it's a convenient one and therefore people succumb to ignorance instead.

If one meets someone with this belief one should present them with the truth of the origin of this myth. This should be done as scientific myths create large scale problems and making people aware regarding the same is of great significance.