In 1998, Andrew Wakefield helped launch one of the most consequential vaccine controversies of the modern era. 28 years later, Donald Trump wants the combined MMR vaccine split into separate shots.

In this video, I trace how that idea survived Wakefield's exposure as a scientific fraud, was reborn in the American anti-vaccine movement, and eventually made its way to the White House.

The story of the idea of splitting up the combined MMR vaccine is a microcosm of the anti-vaccine movement itself: discredited by the establishment, ridiculed as fringe, reshaped by activists and media, and now in control at the highest level of U.S. health policy.

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0:00 Trump wants to split the MMR vaccine
1:39 Andrew Wakefield and the 1998 MMR controversy
4:41 Brian Deer investigates Wakefield
7:22 Wakefield starts over in America
10:09 A symbol and martyr
12:39 From Wakefield to the White House

Selected sources & footage
Hbomberguy, "Vaccines and Autism: A Measured Response" Vaccines and Autism: A Measured Response
Brian Deer, "MMR: What they didn't tell you (2004)" Brian Deer's 2004 film on Andrew Wakefield...
Miranda Bailey, The Pathological Optimist (2017)