| Notes |
"Oller, a former professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, has a doctorate in applied linguistics. His opposition to vaccines appears to have developed through an interest in autism and its possible causes.
Together with his son — a professor at Texas A&M University — Oller wrote a book on autism, published in 2009. It contained a foreword by Andrew Wakefield, a British doctor who wrongly claimed to have found a connection between autism and the MMR vaccine, which is used to protect against measles, mumps and rubella. Embarrassingly, a few months after their book appeared, Wakefield was struck off the medical register in Britain for falsifying his research.
Oller is also active in the creationist movement, which claims the Bible’s account of the origins of the universe is factually accurate. He has written articles for the Institute for Creation Research (where he is listed as a member of the technical advisory board) and for Answers in Genesis, an organization that seeks to “expose the bankruptcy of evolutionary ideas” and claims the Earth is only about 6,000 years old.
In 2011, Oller sued university colleagues, claiming he had been marginalized and discriminated against because of his views on both creationism and a supposed connection between vaccines and autism. His claim was rejected."
https://newlinesmag.com/argument/friends-in-strange-places/ |