Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan are once again causing a stir on social media. The Facebook founder and his wife have publicly shared their experiences with parenthood from the beginning when they announced Pricilla’s pregnancy. On Friday, Mark Zuckerberg made, what some believe, to be another important statement showing a photo of his newborn and posting:
Doctor's visit -- time for vaccines!
Social media is reacting to his post, and many believe that his post is a clear show of support for vaccinations. With 47 million followers, one can’t help but suspect that is Zuckerberg’s intention. Many are happy about the post and are praising the founder of Facebook. His post has garnered 3,000,000 ‘Likes’ and over 1k comments. But the first comment is also quite popular:
In 1998, Andrew Wakefield conducted a study of 12 children linking the MMR vaccine to the onset of autism. His study has since been discredited, he was stripped of his medical license and larger-scale studies were done that refuted Wakefield's findings. But the aftermath of Wakefield's bunk study lives on and the misinformation perseveres. Journalist Jeremy Laurance called it "one of the biggest public relations disasters in medicine."
In a 2015 historic decision, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law that mandates almost all California schoolchildren to be fully vaccinated, regardless of religious beliefs. It’s one of the strictest pro-vaccine laws in the country. Brown states:
"The science is clear that vaccines dramatically protect children against a number of infectious and dangerous diseases," Gov. Jerry Brown wrote when he signed the bill into law. "While it's true that no medical intervention is without risk, the evidence shows that immunization powerfully benefits and protects the community."
The law is expected to be mirrored in other states.
Seth Mnookin, who tackled the myth that vaccines cause autism in his book, The Panic Virus, said on NBC:
Once you scare someone, it’s really hard to un-scare them.
Apparently, the panic has not affected the Zuckerbergs. Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan.