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How a Disgraced Doctor Turned Austin Into the Antivax Capital of America
One evening in Austin, Texas, about 20 years ago, a psychiatrist threw a dinner party, inviting doctors and notable names from the medical establishment to meet a guest of honor: Andrew Wakefield. After niceties, Wakefield stood in front of a slideshow presentation, his 1998 Lancet study on the screen, which claimed there was a possible link between autism and the MMR vaccine. Back home, he had lost his job as a gastroenterologist at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, among increasing numbers of peer-reviewed studies disproving his theory.
The General Medical Council would later strip Wakefield of his medical licence and the British Medical Journal, or BMJ, would find his research to be “fraudulent”. “He was trying to drum up support,” said Steve Levine, 68, a former head of communications at the Texas Medical Association who was at the dinner. “He needed some place to land and Austin is a very accepting environment, with an alternative medicine approach, combined with a lot of Texas cash. He was extremely charismatic and it worked.”
Wakefield thrived in America, speaking at conferences and heralded as a martyr by mothers of autistic children who believed the disorder was caused by a vaccination. He was the father of the modern conspiracy theory. Crowds cheered, fans sobbed, people called him their “Jesus Christ”. It is from these Texan-born groups that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s health secretary, was introduced to the same doctrine. Kennedy said in 2019 that Wakefield was “among the most unjustly vilified figures of modern history”.
Her Son Died of Asthma. Now Kids Get Lessons on Surviving Smoky Skies, in His Name
Every day, nine-year-old Roland Latimer checks the air quality in Gold River, British Columbia (B.C.), before heading outside. He has asthma and carries puffers to help him breathe. When air quality is poor, like when wildfire smoke is present, he’s forced to stay indoors.
Wildfire smoke is dangerous for everyone’s health, but for Roland it can trigger a dangerous asthma attack. Even though it’s for his safety, he finds being stuck inside frustrating. “It feels like I’m trapped,” he told What on Earth host Laura Lynch.
Having access to local safety information — with four air quality monitors now in the small Vancouver Island village where he lives — is part of the legacy of a B.C. boy who died from an asthma attack during the wildfire season in July 2023.
Carter Vigh, also nine-years old, went to a birthday party at a water park on a day his parents say they couldn’t smell smoke. The Air Quality Health Index reading was “low risk,” they recall, but that was based on air quality monitors around 100 kilometers away from their home in 100 Mile House, B.C.
His mother, Amber Vigh, wants to turn that tragedy into an opportunity to help others, so the family has partnered with the B.C. Lung Foundation to create Carter’s Project.
“We need to take the time and learn about air quality and how important it is,” she said.
Infants Exposed to Corticosteroids in Utero May Be at Higher Risk for Infections Through Age 21
Research published in JAMA Network Open suggests that youth exposed to corticosteroids in utero, whether born preterm or full-term, are at significantly higher risk for respiratory and nonrespiratory infections through 21 years of age. University of Edinburgh researchers led the study of 1.5 million mother-child pairs using data from the Consortium for the Study of Pregnancy Treatments study.
Singletons born between 1997 and 2018 and 2006 and 2018 in Scotland and Finland, respectively, were followed until 2018. Outcomes were a first diagnosis of respiratory or nonrespiratory infection after birth-related hospital discharge. The average maternal age was 29.4 years, and the average gestational age at birth was 39.2 weeks. In total, 3.2% of participants were exposed to antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) (70.7% preterm, 29.3% full-term).
“International guidelines recommend the use of antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) in pregnancies at risk of imminent preterm birth before 34 weeks’ gestation,” the study authors noted. “However, whether ACS leads to long-term risk of infection from childhood to adulthood is unknown.”
Peanut Allergies Have Plummeted in Children, Study Shows
Food allergies in children dropped sharply in the years after new guidelines encouraged parents to introduce infants to peanuts, a study has found. For decades, as food allergy rates climbed, experts recommended that parents avoid exposing their infants to common allergens. But a landmark trial in 2015 found that feeding peanuts to babies could cut their chances of developing an allergy by over 80%.
In 2017, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases formally recommended the early-introduction approach and issued national guidelines. The new study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, found that food allergy rates in children under three fell after those guidelines were put into place — dropping to 0.93% between 2017 and 2020, from 1.46% between 2012 and 2015. That’s a 36% reduction in all food allergies, driven largely by a 43% drop in peanut allergies. The study also found that eggs overtook peanuts as the No. 1 food allergen in young children.
The study did not examine what infants ate, so it does not show that the guidelines caused the decline. Still, the data is promising. While all food allergies can be dangerous, 80% of people never outgrow a peanut allergy. “We’re talking about the prevention of a potentially deadly, life-changing diagnosis,” said Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, a pediatrician at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, who was not involved with the study. “This is real world data of how a public health recommendation can change children’s health.”
Scientists don’t fully understand what causes food allergies, but some believe that higher rates of C-section deliveries, early childhood exposure to antibiotics and our increasingly sanitized environments may play a role, said Jeanna Ryan, a physician assistant at University of Utah Health.
1 in 10 Young American Children Play Outdoors Just Once a Week
Despite the well-known benefits for children’s physical and emotional health, one in 10 parents of toddlers and preschoolers say that their child plays outside just once a week — or less. This is the finding of a nationally-representative poll of 710 parents of children aged one to five, conducted in August by researchers from the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
The team’s analysis revealed that outdoor and imaginative play remain common — but screen-based activities are quickly catching up as a daily fixture of children’s lives.
Nearly one-third of parents surveyed reported that their child regularly engages in “media play” — such as video games — while three in five said their child watches TV or videos every day.
“Play is the key to how young children learn and develop,” said Sarah Clark, M.P.H., co-director of the Mott Poll. “Our report suggests that many families could support healthier development by encouraging a wider variety of play experiences.”
Her 14-Year-Old Was Seduced by a Character.AI Bot. She Says It Cost Him His Life.
“What if I could come home to you right now?” “Please do, my sweet king.”
Those were the last messages exchanged by 14-year-old Sewell Setzer and the chatbot he developed a romantic relationship with on the platform Character.AI. Minutes later, Sewell took his own life. His mother, Megan Garcia, held him for 14 minutes until the paramedics arrived, but it was too late.
Since his death in February 2024, Garcia has filed a lawsuit against the AI company, which, in her testimony, she says “designed chatbots to blur the line between human and machine” and “exploit psychological and emotional vulnerabilities of pubescent adolescents.”
A new study published Oct. 8 by the Center for Democracy & Technology found that 1 in 5 high school students have had a relationship with an AI chatbot, or know someone who has. In a 2025 report from Common Sense Media, 72% of teens had used an AI companion, and a third of teen users said they had chosen to discuss important or serious matters with AI companions instead of real people.
