Anti-vaxxers - Ignorance or Fraud?

      In 1998, a British  physician and twelve of his colleagues published a small case series  in the Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal that suggested MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine may be  related to  autism.  MMR vaccination rates began to drop almost immediately as a result of that.  Subsequent studies  did not confirm  any such relationship and ten  of the twelve authors refuted the interpretation of the data on the basis of insufficient evidence.  Further, it emerged that Wakefield et al had failed to disclose that they had been funded by  lawyers who were engaged by the parents in legal suits against vaccine producing companies.  Ultimately, Wakefield et al were found guilty of deliberate fraud and fabrication of facts apparently for personal gain.   Wakefield was removed from the General Medical  Council of Britain's  register and was no longer permitted to practice medicine, emigrated to America, to lead and encourage the development of the 'Anti-Vaxxer' movement which would lead a significant group, many of whom should  have known better, back  into the dark ages.
      So how is it that so many allegedly educated elitists buy into this absurd theory that measures that have done more to promote health and  eliminate horrible disease are not healthy, are not natural and therefore should be avoided.  How is it that these allegedly educated dopes cannot understand that what is natural is for people to die of infection, of pneumonia and indeed  even of sepsis from an  infected finger?  Can they not understand that it is natural for one  in five children to die  in childbirth along with a  goodly number of mothers?   Can they not understand that pain and suffering is natural and that it  is quite unnatural to remove those natural  warnings?  Do they not take antibiotics when infected or painkillers when in pain?  You bet they do!   Can they not understand that freezing to death is natural and that central  heating and burning of fossil fuels is unnatural?  Can they not understand heat and humidity are natural and that air conditioning is horribly unnatural?    Those poor feckless milksops are to first to cry out for those unnatural balms that they so despised, as soon as they perceive it will  spare them a little pain and suffering.  
       Of course they really do understand what it is all about.  They want to parade their ignorance as though it were knowledge.  Some believe that their unscientific and uneducated views are "equal" to  those of  scholars and scientists who have spent their lives studying those topics.   They are not, but unfortunately they can still do immense damage and inappropriately enjoy some credibility, while the herd  immunity that the last generation ensured persists and offers them protection.  Fortunately,  most sensible folks protect their children, but we are likely to see more outbreaks of these once well  controlled diseases as immunity wanes.
        Meanwhile, the pseudo scientific simpletons will continue to consider themselves as a elite group entitled to  parasitize  on their fellow beings.
         Dr. Wakefield and his ilk will thrive as long as they can recruit the self righteous and the gullible!