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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Robin McKie

From Piltdown Man to anti-vaxxers ... What science’s worst hoaxes can teach us

The Geological Society of London met in 1954 to discuss the Piltdown Man forgery.
The Geological Society of London met in 1954 to discuss the Piltdown Man forgery. Photograph: The Natural History Museum/Alamy

Alessandro Siani, a biologist based at Portsmouth University, chose to write about research on vaccine hesitancy in the online academic network the Conversation earlier this year. The consequences were unpleasant.

A screenshot of an out-of-context extract of his article was republished online with a new headline: “They knew: why did unvaccinated not do more to warn us?”

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