Robert De Niro pulls anti-vaccination film from Tribeca film festival
Actor and co-founder of festival says he ‘did not believe film contributes to or furthers the discussion I had hoped for’
A controversial film about the discredited link between autism and vaccinations has been pulled from Robert De Niro’s Tribeca film festival, after the actor consulted “the scientific community” and found “concerns with certain things in this film”.
The father of an autistic child and co-founder of the festival, De Niro at first defended the decision to premiere Vaxxed: from Cover-Up to Catastrophe, despite outcry from doctors and researchers.
Repeated studies involving more than a million children have found there is no evidence to link childhood vaccines to autism. But a small movement of activists persists in the belief that vaccinations might somehow harm children.
On Saturday De Niro released a statement to explain the new decision. “My intent in screening this film was to provide an opportunity for conversation around an issue that is deeply personal to me and my family,” he said.
“But after reviewing it over the past few days with the Tribeca film festival team and others from the scientific community, we do not believe it contributes to or furthers the discussion I had hoped for.
“The Festival doesn’t seek to avoid or shy away from controversy. However, we have concerns with certain things in this film that we feel prevent us from presenting it in the Festival program. We have decided to remove it from our schedule.”
The controversial film was directed by Andrew Wakefield, a disgraced British former doctor who published a study in 1998 that claimed links between a vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and autism. The paper was quickly found to contain numerous flaws and was deemed by the British Medical Journal “ an elaborate fraud ”.
The Lancet, which originally published the study, retracted it in 2010, the same year that Wakefield lost was stripped of his licence to practise medicine in the UK.
Wakefield appears in the trailer for his film, and claims that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have hidden evidence that would support his discredited claims. The trailer also asks “are our children safe” over the image of smoke swirling out of a syringe.
Prominent scientists and film-makers urged the festival to remove the film, arguing that De Niro and organizers legitimized the claims made by Wakefield by premiering it at their prestigious festival.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/27/robert-de-niro-pulls-vaccination-film-tribeca-vaxxed?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+Version+CB+header&utm_term=163994&subid=14230036&CMP=ema_565
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Great news and a very wise move! This former doctor, Andrew Wakefield, is or will be responsible for the illness and deaths of many children because he is nothing more then a quack with false science! There is no need to give an outlet to more of his lies, distortions and mal-practice!
I have seen this issue intimately from both sides of the argument. I have a nephew, who has asperger's (on the autism spectrum) and I had a friend who's son has autism, and blamed vaccinations. I did a lot of research on this topic and found that not only is there no solid claim that vaccines cause autism, (they claim that it is a mercury based preservative called thimerosal that is the culprit), but also they endanger other people's children by impinging on herd immunology.
I am on the fense to pulling the movie. It could have been shown as sci fi.
I am terribly sorry that Robert DeNiro has a child with Autism. And I have no doubt that he, like any parent, is looking for reason why. However vaccinations did not cause it and he and his wife should not blame themselves for the vaccinations because they probably saved their child's life from things like Measles or Whooping Cough, which can kill.
I'm glad it was pulled, because it needed to be.
I know that parents of autistic children are frantic for help for their children, and looking for someone/something to blame. I can't imagine their pain and suffering! However, vaccinations help thousands of children in stemming disease. I think we sometimes forget what it was like before the vaccines-- when measles could kill, and many other ailments were death sentences. Patricia Neal lost a child in the 1960s to measles. She begged for the vaccine, available in the US, but not in Britain, where she lived. Whole families of children used to be wiped out with diphtheria, whooping cough, and other horrible ailments. It used to be that out of 4 children, 1 would live to adulthood. I'm sure that the vaccines helped that.
I had the 3 day, 5 day, and 7 day measles as a child, before the vaccine, and believe me, I wish I had had a vaccine to keep from suffering that! Also mumps, etc. I did not have diphtheria, whooping cough, "lock jaw", or a whole host of other ailments, thanks to the vaccines. My son has had every vaccine and hopefully, will not be subjected to the killer ailments that vaccines prevent.
A positive choice although it should'nt have gone this far.