Science

I was listening to an interview with the author of a forthcoming book on the persistent belief that childhood autism is caused by exposure to certain childhood vaccines, despite a substantial body of evidence to the contrary.

I'm frustrated by the way people seem to cling to this belief — discounting legitimate science when it doesn't tell them what they want to hear, quick to seize any opportunity to claim that the evidence remains inconclusive.

I can't help but empathise with parents — it's easy to be frightened by the statistics, and the experience of having a young child seems to introduce this irrational insecurity that every decision you make is somehow wrong, and will have disastrous consequences. (I've always felt reasonably confident and secure as a parent; my wife had a completely different experience.) And it's easy to be motivated by fear.

There was a woman who called in, a parent, who spoke of refusing to have her child vaccinated. Even as each of her concerns were addressed, one by one, in the end she admitted that nothing would ever convince her to change her beliefs. Scientific evidence, in her view, would always be suspect.

I put more faith in science than I do in faith.