Have you had a chance to read our News Feature on the link between vaccination and autism? I encourage you to read it.

When we first discussed the idea of running this story, I didn’t think there was much in it. After all, the main articles claiming the existence of such a link had been debunked some time ago. What was news to me, though, was how violent the parents of kids with autism have become. This is quite reminiscent of the strategy that animal activists have taken in the UK to make their point.

In the past, we have written editorials on how important it is for researchers to communicate science to the public, trying to help them distinguish between good and bad science. But cases like this make me wonder: would starting a serious dialogue with the concerned parents really make a difference? I sincerely doubt it. Once your emotional reactions take control of your intellect, arguments aren’t likely to make any difference to your point of view.

Being the father of a child with a serious genetic disorder, I have had the opportunity to meet parents of similar kids and see in person how strongly their emotions can cloud their objectivity, particularly at the beginning of their ordeal, when they first get the news that their son or daughter is ill.

There is, however, a clear difference between these parents and the parents of kids with autism; whereas people like me cannot really channel our frustration against anyone other than our own genes, the parents of autistic kids have an easy target in advocates of vaccination schemes to protect kids from diseases that have been eradicated and in scientists who have worked to debunk the vaccine-autism link.

This irony makes their violence even more meaningless than that of animal activists.