Flash Memoir Draft 01

An Inoculation to Conspiracy
Carl Hulbert

In 2010 the anti-vaccine movement had hit something of a slump. Andrew

Wakefield, one of the leaders of the movement at the time had been found guilty of
dishonesty and irresponsibility in the research for one of his hallmark anti-vaccine
studies. The General Medical Council who ruled on this case is a public statutory body
that maintains the official register of medical practitioners within the United Kingdom. At
the same time this was happening I was in middle-school without any particular interest
in medicine or vaccines, I was more interested in books and games. Unlike the average
middle-schooler though, I had heard about the anti-vaccination movement and even
knew the name Andrew Wakefield. I learned about this movement and the danger
conspiracy theories and disinformation as a whole can pose from a young age thanks to
my mother.
My mother knew a lot about the anti-vaccination movement and the claims
around it due to her job as a state pharmacist. From a young age I had heard about
vaccination rates and new disease research over the dinner table. To say that my mom
had a dislike of the anti-vaccine conspiracy movement would be an understatement. I
was fully vaccinated as a child and my mother made sure I knew it and the benefits that
came with those vaccinations even as young as elementary school.
In 2010 one evening I was working on my school work in my room when I heard
my mother call my sister and I downstairs. When she and I got there my mom was
standing in our living room with a small cake sitting on the table next to her with a happy
smile.
“Hey you two I heard some good news at work today so I grabbed a cake on the
way home to celebrate,” my mom said, as she turned to gather and set out some plates
while gesturing at the cake. “Here grab a plate and I’ll tell you about it,” my sister and I
thanked our mom, each quickly cutting a piece of the cake and settling down to hear
what had happened. This was not the first time our mother had come home with news
like this, and while neither my sister or I had a particular interest in pharmacology we
both enjoyed hearing my mother’s stories from work, especially if they were good news.
Smiling and settling down on the comfortable green couch next to my sister, my
mother took a bite of her piece of cake before setting aside her plate to speak. “Well I’ve
told you two before about the whole anti-vaccine conspiracy that’s been going around.
Today one of the most cited studies that said that vaccines cause autism got reviewed
and discredited and more importantly the doctor who did it got his license revoked.”
After I learned about conspiracy theories and the people who push them like that I
gained a new respect for information integrity and vaccines as well.
Citations:

Triggle, N. (2010, January 28). MMR scare doctor 'acted unethically', panel finds. BBC
News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8483865.stm