In 2015–2016 Del Bigtree — a television producer who had worked on The Doctors despite no medical training — partnered with Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced former gastroenterologist whose 1998 Lancet paper linking MMR vaccine to autism had been retracted and whose license was later revoked. Bigtree left his TV role to produce, write and front Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, a documentary that repackaged Wakefield’s discredited claims and alleged a CDC conspiracy. The film debuted in 2016 to scathing reviews from scientists and critics; epidemiologist W. Ian Lipkin summed up the consensus by saying the film “misrepresents what science knows about autism” and undermines public confidence in vaccines. Far from ending at festivals, the project launched an aggressive promotional bus tour and attracted funding — notably from the Selz Foundation — that transformed Bigtree from a fringe TV producer into a national anti‑vaccine activist. The fallout was immediate and enduring: Vaxxed became a recruiting tool for activists, shored up a new network of speakers and funders, and marked the start of Bigtree’s transition from producer to political operative, regularly colluding with Wakefield and other anti‑vaccine figures to lobby against state vaccination laws.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 2010s
Vaxxed and the Wakefield Alliance: How a Discredited Doctor’s Film Launched Del Bigtree into the Anti‑Vaccine Spotlight
Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe / 2010s
In 2015–2016 Del Bigtree — a television producer who had worked on The Doctors despite no medical training — partnered with Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced former gastroenterologist whose 1998 Lancet paper linking MMR vaccine to autism had been retracted and whose license was later revoked. Bigtree left his TV role to produce, write and front Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, a documentary that repackaged Wakefield’s discredited claims and alleged a CDC conspiracy. The film debuted in 2016 to scathing reviews from scientists and critics; epidemiologist W. Ian Lipkin summed up the consensus by saying the film “misrepresents what science knows about autism” and undermines public confidence in vaccines. Far from ending at festivals, the project launched an aggressive promotional bus tour and attracted funding — notably from the Selz Foundation — that transformed Bigtree from a fringe TV producer into a national anti‑vaccine activist. The fallout was immediate and enduring: Vaxxed became a recruiting tool for activists, shored up a new network of speakers and funders, and marked the start of Bigtree’s transition from producer to political operative, regularly colluding with Wakefield and other anti‑vaccine figures to lobby against state vaccination laws.
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