>>19047584
Reception
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 38% based on 13 reviews, and an average rating of 4.3/10.[49]
In his film debut, Wakefield has cast himself as the victim of a massive conspiracy to hide the truth … What drove Wakefield from being a respected researcher to a conspiracy theorist?
—Paul Offit in The Hollywood Reporter.[50]
Documentary director Penny Lane stated, "This film is not some sort of disinterested investigation into the 'vaccines cause autism' hoax; this film is directed by the person who perpetuated the hoax."[1]
A review by Ed Cara from the health and science news-site Medical Daily states that "[Vaxxed] doesn't care about convincing its audience with evidence. Instead, Wakefield, Hooker, and producer Del Bigtree run the viewer through a well-trod gauntlet of emotional pleas, context-free statistics … and shadowy conspiracies."[33] Eric Kohn from an independent film news-site Indiewire says: "Wakefield's by-the-numbers approach to didactic storytelling relies on tons of random factoids positioned out of context to drive home his agenda."[8]
Joe Leydon, a film critic from Variety magazine. describes the film as a "slickly produced but scientifically dubious hodgepodge of free-floating paranoia" and warns of its "anti-Big Pharma conspiracy mongering."[51] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote:
The vast majority of people who see this film will not have the scientific knowledge to assess the film's veracity. But it's fair to say that the documentary, though characterized as antivaccination, isn't quite that. The point of view is more nuanced. It's against the vaccination of children ages 2 and younger. And it's particularly against the MMR — that is, the giving of three vaccines at once … it's a passionate advocate for its viewpoint, and that makes for compelling viewing. … Of course, it's possible that the children would have developed autism anyway, and that one event didn't cause the other. But the parents presented here are convinced otherwise.[52]
Pete Vonder Haar of Houston Press described the film as a "tragic fraud."[34] Sarah Gill of The Age called the film "another desperate attempt to hoodwink the public for no greater purpose than making money."[12] Mick LaSalle of SFGate states that Vaxxed "is not the end of the discussion and doesn't contain the whole story … But it's a passionate advocate for its viewpoint, and that makes for compelling viewing."[53]
Sequel
In November 2019, Vaxxed II: The People's Truth, produced by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was released in the US.[54] The core of the film is video of individuals telling their stories to those who drove the Vaxxed promotional bus across the US in 2016.[2]
Of the film, Newsweek stated that it "touts the myth that there is a "vaccine injury epidemic."" and that the "trailer features distressing footage of parents making anecdotal and unfounded claims that vaccines caused their children to have developmental problems, including autism."[55]
The Guardian stated that "The film makes no effort to address the scientific evidence that the parents’ experiences of autism in their children have nothing to do with vaccines, or the coincidence that symptoms of autism often appear between 12 and 24 months of age, exactly when the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is given."[2]