ABC News contributor Laura Ingraham falsely suggested there's a link between vaccines and autism, which flies in the face of substantial scientific evidence and her own employer's reporting on the issue.
A domestic measles outbreak has highlighted the rising numbers of American parents who disregard medical recommendations and choose not to vaccinate their children, often for religious or personal reasons.
On February 2, Ingraham spoke with a caller on her radio show who claimed that vaccinations had “something to do with” her child getting autism. Ingraham suggested that this might be a compelling reason to forgo vaccinating children, saying that there has been “anecdotal evidence” pointing to “overnight change” in children who have been vaccinated.
Contrary to Ingraham, ABC News reported just the day before that the science is clear: there is no link between autism and vaccines.
As ABC's This Week explained on February 1, a “now discredited study” published in 1998 originally gave rise to this myth about autism. The Lancet, the medical journal which published the study, retracted it in 2010, while The British Medical Journal called the research "fraudulent" and authorities stripped the doctor of his license. Multiple studies since then have confirmed that vaccines are safe.
“Study after study has shown that there are no negative long-term consequences,” CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden told ABC. Measles, he said, is a “serious disease, and it would be terrible if we have preventable illness, even death, from this disease that's preventable with a safe and effective vaccine.”
A New York Times report explained how irresponsible media coverage has played a role in perpetuating this dangerous myth about vaccines. Right-wing media figures, including Fox & Friends, Sharyl Attkisson, and now Ingraham, have long helped prop up discredited science and baseless fearmongering about the safeties of vaccines. Glenn Beck and multiple Fox News figures have repeatedly floated debunked claims vaccines may be linked to autism. Rush Limbaugh even declared in 2009 that it was “hard to disagree” with claims that the swine flu vaccine was “developed to kill people.”
During her radio show, Ingraham went on to claim that measles is “not generally a deadly disease” -- ignoring the fact that “measles is one of the leading causes of death among young children” worldwide -- and to baselessly speculate that undocumented immigrants were to blame for spreading infectious diseases such as measles and TB in the U.S.
ABC News hired Ingraham as a contributor in April 2014, despite her long history of inflammatory and misinformed rhetoric.