1. This is Marco Arturo. He’s a 12-year-old science fan from Mexico.
He posts science videos on his Facebook page, where he has thousands of followers from around the world.
2. Marco just completed an important investigation into the alleged link between vaccines and autism.
3. Marco said he had collected all the evidence in this folder.
5. “I think it might be because there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that vaccines are linked to autism in any way whatsoever.”
Marco is right, of course. There is absolutely no link between vaccines and autism. And any research that suggested there was has been repeatedly debunked and repudiated by the scientific community.
6. Marco laid out the case for why vaccines have saved countless people from diseases like measles, meningitis, and polio.
He also said parents have a responsibility to think about more than just their own children.
“It’s also everyone else’s child you’re putting in danger because you read some forwarded email,” he said.
9. Marco’s video has been viewed more than 3 million times and gotten tens of thousands of likes and comments on his page.
Even Ashton Kutcher’s a fan.
10. Marco told BuzzFeed News he made the video after a thorough investigation of the purported link between vaccines and autism, saying he reached his conclusions after two months of research.
“I read every article [anti-vaccine activists] used as evidence and I realized that the articles either didn’t say what they claimed they did, or they were fraudulent articles found in non-trustable websites,” he said. “After questioning if vaccines were really safe, and researching on the topic, I got to the conclusion that vaccines had nothing to do with autism.”
He said he hopes people realize that “vaccines have done a lot more good than damage” and that except for very specific medical cases, everyone should vaccinate their children for the sake of public health.
11. Marco said he’s always loved science, and he wants to be a researcher and science educator. “I want to become well known by people of all ages for what I’ve done with my life, and I want to do something big enough to change the world as we know it, giving me a place in history.”
He said that while most of the feedback he’s gotten to his video has been positive, there have been some haters, too.
“Some people tell me I should have been aborted, others tell me I’m an annoying autistic child, and others that I’m the living proof that vaccines cause retardation.”
12. “Fortunately, I have the complete support of the scientific community, and once science is on my side, there’s nothing on theirs.”
