My high school biology teacher told me vaccines cause autism and I believed it until 2019

Mr. Delgado in Richmond had a side gig selling essential oils and printed out a packet of 'research' that looked legit to a 16 year old. I skipped my own flu shot for eight years because of it. Then my nephew was born premature and couldn't get his vaccines on schedule, and I actually looked at the original Wakefield paper myself. Took about 20 minutes to see it was garbage. I still feel dumb about it, and I'm a nurse now. Anyone else have a teacher or family member who handed you bad info that took way too long to shake off?

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hugo8251d ago

God, that's so relatable it hurts. My aunt was huge into those MLM wellness groups and she convinced my mom that the HPV vaccine was a government tracking thing, so I never got it. I remember sitting in health class feeling so smug about "knowing the truth" while everyone else got their shots. It wasn't until I was like 23 and dating someone who worked in a pharmacy that I actually read the insert and realized how dumb I'd been. Still makes me cringe when I think about how I lectured a friend who was worried about her own daughter's shots.

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