Robert De Niro Involved in Vaccine/Autism Row Over Documentary

Robert De Niro has become involved in a row over the safety of vaccines, following the inclusion of a documentary on the alleged MMR/autism link in the Tribeca Film Festival, of which he is a co-founder.

Renewed controversy regarding vaccine safety. Image Credit: Global Panorama (Flickr)

As The Guardian reports, Vaxxed: from Cover-Up to Catastrophe, directed by disgraced former surgeon Andrew Wakefield, has been at the center of medical controversy which threatened the reputation of the film festival.

De Niro, who has a son with autism, initially stood by his decision to premiere the film arguing that he wanted to promote discussion of the topic, but later changed his mind and axed the film after backlash.

The documentary claims that health authorities abused Wakefield’s research and data to fit their agenda, however no credible evidence has been found to support Wakefield’s claims of a link between the combined vaccination for Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) and autism.

In contrast to what the mainstream news reports, there are those who agree with Wakefield and believe he has been made to seem like a “quack” to discredit his findings.

Read more on this story here, here and here.

Watch the trailer for the documentary here: