Vaccines and Autism: ‘Prebunking’ Bad Science and Amplifying Trusted Voices
The topic of autism and its causes has reentered the national discourse. As the nation awaits a pending report on this topic out of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Coalition for Trust in Health and Science, a coalition of more than 90 national organizations (including The Physicians Foundation), partnered with Danielle Hall of the Autism Society of America and Dr. Jessica Steier of Unbiased Science to provide education about autism, its causes, and scientific strides made in recent years. The on-demand webinar also provides strategies for organizations and individuals to anticipate and preemptively reduce the spread of inaccurate information about autism.
Event recording
Autism and Its Causes: Where the Science Stands Today (Passcode: aJM4E!UP)
Resources
- The Playbook Used to ‘Prove’ Vaccines Cause Autism (Dr. Jess Steier, New York Times)
- Saturday Morning Thoughts on the Tylenol-Autism News (Dr. Jess Steier)
- The Facts About Autism & Vaccines and Plain Language Version (Autism Society of America)
Five steps organizations and individuals can take today
- Proactively prebunk bad science when possible.
- Use statements like: “You might have heard… but here’s what science shows us…” or “When science is politicized, we don’t get the full picture. Here’s what we know…”
- Seek accurate information through The Evidence Collective, Unbiased Science, and Autism Society of America
- Amplify trusted voices
- Retweet, repost, and highlight experts on social media.
- Elevate the voices of people with autism to humanize the message.
- Educate your networks
- Host or share micro-trainings in prebunking and relevant resources.
- Monitor emerging narratives
- Use CTHS’ Slack channel for emerging trends and content (email us to sign up).
- Follow The Evidence Collective for early signals of false claims.
- Encourage media responsibility
- Partner with journalists to inform them about this topic.
- Share credible resources with journalists.