This 15-page comic about the origins of the anti-vaccine movement is all over the science blogs. It's definitely worth checking out. 

I was thinking that the whole anti-vaccination movement is based on the incredulity of privilege.  Almost no one of my generation has seen real-life suffering and death caused by vaccine-preventable diseases (thanks largely to high rates of vaccination--that is, until very recently).  

I've written about Andrew Wakefield's disgusting shenanigans before, and I've also critiqued some of the misinformation and scientifically unsupported claims of the prominent anti-vaccine organizations. 

 I get it.  It's a terrible experience to vaccinate your beloved, unblemished newborn.  Even when you know the miniscule risks of vaccines are  wildly less dangerous than the risk of a young child contracting a deadly vaccine-preventable disease, it's very hard to do.  (My own Trophy Husband manages to skip most of the vaccine-related checkups. Something about "work...")  It's heartbreaking to hold your peaceful infant while gloved hands that were formerly very gentle suddenly cause intense pain.  The startled look of shock and betrayal on my babies' faces always--always makes me cry.  Then I spend the next week sick to my stomach waiting for scary fevers, or seizures, or horrible life-threatening allergic reactions to occur (which, thankfully never have because actual vaccine reactions are incredibly rare).

I can totally understand how individual parents have trouble sorting out conflicting information about vaccines.  (Here's a great primer with links to credible, primary, peer-reviewed scientific sources.)  

What I can't understand is why a bastard like Andrew Wakefield, who tortured animals and treated children with absolute cruelty, is a hero of the movement.