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euripideez 's review for:
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
This is the culmination of a two decades-long investigation into the fraud that helped launch a callous, venomous public health crisis by claiming to link the MMR vaccine to autism.
While a large portion of the first couple of parts are extremely science-heavy and slow to get through, don’t be deterred. Deer is demonstrating how the victims of Wakefield’s crusade – us – never had a hope when faced with the intricacies of scientific practice, terminology and industry politics. We instead have no choice but to place faith in the people oath-bound to do no harm, which makes for Deer’s detailed timeline of Wakefield’s betrayal of the public that much more impactful.
Don’t, however, go into this book believing it’s going to be a wit-filled, snarky takedown of Wakefield’s laughable attempts to push the claim vaccines cause autism. It is a slow read with a lot of information to process, but Deer clearly respects his audience (unlike the fraudster) to offer anything less than all the facts. If you’re after a shorter, punchier story about Wakefield, I’d recommend hbomberguy’s YouTube video on vaccines, which cites a lot of Deer’s work and from whom this book was recommended.
Ultimately, the beauty of Deer’s writing lies between the lines. Deer offers suggestions in throwaway remarks, not to distract the reader, but to help them understand the mentality of the moment, the players and Deer’s intentions (my favourite was when he noted Wakefield’s divorce only by mentioning he had a ring-less left hand ). As the reader it is vital we understand how and why Wakefield succeeded, if for only a time, to fool everyone and cement an urban myth onto the international consciousness.
My only sadness is that we didn’t see more of Deer himself. By the end I wished to know, if only to recognise and laud, the true depth of his investigation. Which nights were sleepless, which interviewees the toughest, did it all ever feel insurmountable? But then the uncomfortable parallel between Wakefield and Deer, two sides of the same story, would be too structurally obvious to ignore. It’s also insulting (to Deer) and vastly too crediting to Wakefield. Better that Wakefield is banished to be the boogeyman under the bed, feared briefly by children, laughed at by adults, and then forgotten — a fate far better than he deserves.