A while back, the medical community sent out the call that the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine that children received could actually be the cause of some cases of autism. Panic reigned throughout, and many parents opted, on the basis of that study, to refrain from immunizing their children. Now, we are told, “Oops, my bad”—that this is actually not the case. Oops indeed. Many children went without that preventative.

But there is a larger issue at hand from this debacle—trust. Who do we believe? Personally, my first thought upon hearing the retraction was: “I bet the pharmacies that made the vaccine got after the doctors to make that statement.” I still don’t know whether to believe the first study or the second. My kids got the MMR, and they grew up just fine.

The crux here is that we have become, through experience, a cynical society, willing to accept that our doctors, our lawyers, our businessmen, our politicians, all have ulterior motives for everything, with those motives usually hinging on money. Unfortunately, that fact has been proven so often, driven home with a sledge hammer, that we accept deception as the way of the world.

Sad.