Autism, Austerity, and Bad Science

By Peter Bokulich

Aditya Chakrabortty compares the recent austerity movement built on Reinhart and Rogoff’s claim that running debts over 90% of GDP severely limits a country’s growth to the anti-vaccine movement built on Adrew Wakefield’s claim that the MMR vaccine causes autism.

Chakrabortty draws three lessons from the two episodes:

1. Have a suspicious public.
2. Bad ideas sound like common sense.
3. Bad ideas need strong supporters.