Got called out by a retired librarian at a gas station for sharing that 'vaccines cause autism' meme

I was in Elko, Nevada last Tuesday fueling up my rig, and this older lady in line behind me saw my phone screen while I was waiting to pay. She pointed at the meme I had pulled up and said, 'That study was retracted in 2010 after 10 of the 13 authors withdrew their names.' I didn't even know what to say. She grabbed a napkin and wrote down the DOI number for the retraction notice. Has anyone else had a random stranger fact-check them out of nowhere and it actually change your mind?

3 comments

3 Comments

olivia_lopez985d ago

I used to share those memes back in 2013 when my nephew was first diagnosed, thinking I was helping people know the truth. But then a nurse at my clinic pulled up the actual retraction notice and explained how the original study was based on just 12 kids. It took me a while to really accept I was wrong, but now I always check if something is retracted before I share it.

ericcraig5d ago

That librarian didn't pull any punches.

taylor_patel3d ago

That 12 kids thing really got me too, @ericcraig. A few months ago my cousin posted a link to a story about vaccines and autism that went viral in 2015, and I almost shared it without thinking. Then I remembered a similar retraction notice I'd looked up for a different article about MMR and bowel disease that was completely debunked. Ngl it felt embarrassing to realize how many times I'd spread stuff based on a single sketchy study without ever checking the actual source. Tbh I still catch myself falling for those emotional headlines sometimes, but now I always copy paste the doi or title into PubMed before I hit share.