Vaxxed

Vaxxed
Film poster
Directed byAndrew Wakefield
Written byAndrew Wakefield
Del Bigtree
Produced byDel Bigtree
Distributed byCinema Libre Studio
Release date
  • April 1, 2016 (2016-04-01)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe is a 2016 American pseudoscience propaganda film[1]: 1[2]: 1[3] alleging a cover-up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of a purported link between the MMR vaccine and autism.[4][5][6] According to Variety, the film "purports to investigate the claims of a senior scientist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who revealed that the CDC had allegedly manipulated and destroyed data on an important study about autism and the MMR vaccine";[7] critics derided Vaxxed as an anti-vaccine propaganda film.[8][9][10][11]

The film received overwhelmingly negative reviews from academics and critics. The film was directed by discredited anti-vaccine activist Andrew Wakefield, who was struck off the medical register in the United Kingdom in 2010 due to ethical violations related to his fraudulent research into the role of vaccines in autism.[4][12][13][14] It was scheduled to premiere at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival but was withdrawn by the festival.[15] In reviewing the film, Indiewire said that "Wakefield doesn't just have a dog in this fight; he is the dog".[16] In November 2019, a sequel, Vaxxed II: The People's Truth, was released.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference CNN was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference V2_Guardian was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Sun, Lena H. (June 19, 2019). "Meet the New York couple donating millions to the anti-vax movement". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 4, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2022. Wakefield used the money to help fund a documentary film called "Vaxxed,"...Tara Smith, an infectious disease expert at Kent State University who has researched the anti-vaccine movement, called the film "an effective piece of propaganda"
  4. ^ a b Belluck, Pam; Ryzik, Melena (March 25, 2016). "Robert De Niro Defends Screening of Anti-Vaccine Film at Tribeca Festival". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 25, 2017. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  5. ^ June, Laura (March 22, 2016). "Why Is an Anti-Vaccine Documentary by a Proven Quack Being Taken Seriously?". New York. Archived from the original on March 31, 2016. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  6. ^ Gorski, David (July 11, 2016). "Reviewing Andrew Wakefield's VAXXED: Antivaccine propaganda at its most pernicious". Science-Based Medicine. Archived from the original on February 15, 2017. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference VarietyPickedUp was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Kohn, Eric (April 1, 2016). "'Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe' is Designed to Trick You (Review)". Indiewire. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
  9. ^ Senneset, Ingeborg (March 28, 2016). "Robert De Niro har gjort seg til vaksinemotstandernes nyttige idiot" [Robert De Niro has become the vaccine opponent's useful idiot]. Aftenposten (Norway) (in Norwegian Bokmål). Archived from the original on March 31, 2016. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  10. ^ Senapathy, Kavin (March 28, 2016). "No Andrew Wakefield, You're Not Being Censored And You Don't Deserve Due Process". Forbes. US. Archived from the original on March 23, 2020.
  11. ^ Gorski, David (Orac) (March 25, 2016). "Mystery solved: It was Robert De Niro who got Andrew Wakefield's antivaccine propaganda film selected for screening at the Tribeca Film Festival". Respectful Insolence. Archived from the original on April 6, 2016. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
  12. ^ Gill, Sarah (April 27, 2016). "Anti-immunisation movie Vaxxed is a platform for its maker, not its message". The Age (Vic. Australia). Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  13. ^ "The Lancet's Vaccine Retraction". Wall Street Journal. February 3, 2010. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  14. ^ Triggle, Nick (May 24, 2010). "MMR doctor struck from register". BBC. Archived from the original on April 11, 2017. Retrieved July 17, 2018.
  15. ^ Rosen, Christopher (March 26, 2016). "Tribeca Film Festival: Vaxxed pulled from schedule". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  16. ^ ‘Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe’ is Designed to Trick You (Review), Indiewire