Did I listen to this audiobook because hbomberguy's "Vaccines and Autism: A Measured Response" Youtube video essay lives rent-free in my head? Yes. Am I glad I listened to it? Also yes.

There is literally no good science linking vaccines and autism, and Andrew Wakefield has done irreparable harm to thousands of people in the pursuit of fame (or infamy). Preying on the insecurity and vulnerability of parents with neurodiverse children is some cartoon-villain levels of evil.

I haven't felt so hopeless after finishing a book in years. While some of the initial parents involved in the 12-child Lancet study have realized that they were victims of Andrew Wakefield, many continue to cling to his fantastical claims and others have simply jumped from one conspiracy explanation to another. I doubt that reading about falsified medical records, perjury, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or any of the malpractice that Wakefield was involved in will change the minds of radical anti-vaxxers. The people who need this book the most are those least likely to read it.

Might be a bit hard to follow if you're not familiar with events, but well worth it.

A super informative read on the MMR scandal and the origins of the modern anti-vax movement. Brian Deer does an incredible job at breaking down his lengthy investigation of the main players and keeps the tension up throughout. My only problem (causing me to dock a half star) is the way he sometimes described the villains of the piece, which often relied on fatphobia and the whole "ugly=evil" trope, and sometimes veered into outright sexist tropes (the way he describes some of the antivax ladies as the attractive, almost "temptress", stereotype really rubbed me the wrong way in a few places, compared to how he describes women on the side of truth). But overall a really good read. 

Holy shit this book is really good. Deer's prose grips you and pulls you right in with no stops or breaks; sometimes it's downright distressing, sometimes it's hilarious. He speaks from a place of knowledge and I loved reading this very detailed breakdown of the facts and how we got here, to the anti-vaccine crisis of today. Very good book.

What I wanted was Bad Blood, what I got was extremely British journo against the world. It's informative but very opinionated. 

Brian Deer provides a hearty summary of nearly 20 years' work uncovering the fraud at the heart of the 'vaccines cause autism' controversy. While not fast paced and not always an easy read, this work is necessary and highly informative. This book is so well structured that even though he peels back layers to reveal yet more layers, Deer never lets you get lost.

Deer also never loses focus in reminding us that this work has had very real impacts on people, and he time and again comes back to the families who've borne the brunt of Wakefield's deception. </spoilers>