The Toronto Star, Canada's highest-circulation daily newspaper, has built a reputation for excellent investigative reporting, including justly celebrated exposes of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.
But now that reputation is in tatters, due to an evidence-free "investigation" of the health risks of the vaccine Gardasil, which immunizes against the dangerous human papillomavirus. The Star's Feb. 5 piece, ominously headlined "A wonder drug's dark side," exploited heart-wrenching family anecdotes of illness and death to undermine a vast library of scientific studies proving the vaccine to be safe.
Worse, the Star responded to an uproar over the article by scientific and medical experts by smearing and demeaning critics -- until the paper's publisher finally acknowledged publicly that the story was wrong: "We failed in this case. We let down. And it was in the management of the story at the top," he told a radio audience on Feb. 11. On Friday, the Star added a subheadline to the online version of the article, acknowledging the uproar and stating in part, "There is no scientific medical evidence of any 'dark side' of this vaccine."
The entire affair unfolded over slightly more than a week, but its negative impact on the health of Canadians could persist for years. The Star's credulous treatment of unverified stories claiming serious side effects from Gardasil resembles that of Katie Couric, who provided self-described Gardasil victims with an even larger platform on her daytime TV show in 2013. Couric soon issued a mea culpa. (We covered her misadventure here and here.)
The consequences of such scare reporting can be measured in real illness and death. A fraudulent, conclusively debunked study purporting to show a link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism continues to fuel resistance to the MMR vaccine. The harvest includes the current nationwide outbreak of measles that began with visits to and exposure of unvaccinated individuals at Disneyland at Christmastime. The caseload has reached at least 121 in 17 states, including 110 in California.
more about these moral and intellectual superiors here:
How a major newspaper bungled a vaccine story, then smeared its critics - LA Times
The Gardasil Girls: How Toronto Star story on young women hurt public trust in vaccine - Manitoba - CBC News
But now that reputation is in tatters, due to an evidence-free "investigation" of the health risks of the vaccine Gardasil, which immunizes against the dangerous human papillomavirus. The Star's Feb. 5 piece, ominously headlined "A wonder drug's dark side," exploited heart-wrenching family anecdotes of illness and death to undermine a vast library of scientific studies proving the vaccine to be safe.
Worse, the Star responded to an uproar over the article by scientific and medical experts by smearing and demeaning critics -- until the paper's publisher finally acknowledged publicly that the story was wrong: "We failed in this case. We let down. And it was in the management of the story at the top," he told a radio audience on Feb. 11. On Friday, the Star added a subheadline to the online version of the article, acknowledging the uproar and stating in part, "There is no scientific medical evidence of any 'dark side' of this vaccine."
The entire affair unfolded over slightly more than a week, but its negative impact on the health of Canadians could persist for years. The Star's credulous treatment of unverified stories claiming serious side effects from Gardasil resembles that of Katie Couric, who provided self-described Gardasil victims with an even larger platform on her daytime TV show in 2013. Couric soon issued a mea culpa. (We covered her misadventure here and here.)
The consequences of such scare reporting can be measured in real illness and death. A fraudulent, conclusively debunked study purporting to show a link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism continues to fuel resistance to the MMR vaccine. The harvest includes the current nationwide outbreak of measles that began with visits to and exposure of unvaccinated individuals at Disneyland at Christmastime. The caseload has reached at least 121 in 17 states, including 110 in California.
more about these moral and intellectual superiors here:
How a major newspaper bungled a vaccine story, then smeared its critics - LA Times
The Gardasil Girls: How Toronto Star story on young women hurt public trust in vaccine - Manitoba - CBC News
