Episode 72 - Zombie Ideas in Public Health with A/Profs Marco Rizzi and Katie Attwell

We welcome back to the podcast Associate Professor Katie Attwell from the UWA School of Social Sciences and for the first time Associate Professor Marco Rizzi from the UWA Law School. We discuss how a zombie health idea that was long debunked was endorsed by the courts in Italy, having a huge ramifications for public health in the country. Our conversation centres on a couple of court decisions around vaccines that individuals in Italy had claimed had caused them injury, resulting in them seeking compensation from the Italian Government. During one of these cases the infamous Wakefield paper that was published and then later retracted by the Lancet was tendered as evidence that the measles mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine was linked with an increased risk of autism developing in children. Astonishingly on two separate occasions the Courts accepted the argument that the vaccines in question had caused the injuries claimed, despite no evidence being tendered to support these claims. We discuss the circumstances that led the courts to come to their decisions, the process of getting these decisions overturned later on appeal, and the consequences for vaccination rates and the public health system in Italy. We discuss what lessons can be learned by public health authorities around ensuring that the public is effectively informed about health issues, and zombie ideas or misinformation, so that they can make well informed choices about their health care. You can read more about the work that Marco and Katie did investigating the events in Italy here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-law-in-context/article/legitimising-a-zombie-idea-childhood-vaccines-and-autism-the-complex-tale-of-two-judgments-on-vaccine-injury-in-italy/BF7D7E525FE83898A458202C2D261D66 and here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8203395/ Marco’s research profile is here: https://www.uwa.edu.au/Profile/Marco-Rizzi Katie’s research profile is here: https://www.uwa.edu.au/Profile/ABLE/Katie-Attwell As always, if you want to get in touch with the podcast, you can contact us at: meaningofhealth@outlook.com or via twitter @healthmeanswhat or via FaceBook @MeaningofHealth