Finally!!! The Lancet, a leading medical journal, retracted a paper that caused a controversy back in the 1990s in the United Kingdom. The authors of the paper thought there was a link between MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine and autism. However, it was never proven and many studies followed didn’t find any link!!!
What is important is the role of the media!! They kept on reporting the concerns of this one researcher and you can guess what happen!!! This provoked a scare and many parents were worried about giving their children’s the vaccine
I bet you if the media acted in responsible way, i.e. weren’t biased, and had the public interest in their mind, this would not have happened
Now the Media is back at it! Blaming this researcher for his misconduct but personally I think the media played an equal role in this tragedy and they are to be blamed too!!!
For some reason I remembered Jeddah!!! For many years you always read, or hear, in the media in Saudi Arabia about contracts worth millions and millions for various project to fix the diseased infrastructure of the city…. But they (the media) never follow through until the disaster flow through the city killing many!! Things exposed!! The media started blaming everyone and pointing fingers but at the mirror, they never looked.
Shouldn’t the press be responsible for whatever they say!! What they print!!! Why not they join the folks at the Jeddah inquiry…
I wish one day the quality of our media improve and go beyond being a media of showoff and politics!!! Only then we will kick the developing off our backs and move on to be developed.
