Autism is now an epidemic in America and all over the world. Andrew Wakefield's 1998 claim linking autism to vaccination has been met with much debate. Through the 2000's Autism has gone from affecting 1-10,000 to 1- 43 as of 2015. During this time the U.S. Court of Federal Claims for Vaccines have had over 5,000 cases petitioned regarding autism / vaccine damage, only for them to be grouped as the Omnibus hearings, and decided by the Special Masters that there is no link to autism from vaccines such as the MMR. But then in 2013 (i.e., Poling and Banks) the court ruled (or the government conceded) that vaccines had caused encephalopathy, which in turn produced permanent injury, including symptoms of autism and ultimately an ASD diagnosis. Andrew Wakefield's claims and film speak more to this, and it needs to be given the chance to be seen so each individual can make their own, informed decision.

As the father of an autistic child in the United States, it breaks my heart to see that this pro-vaccine movement is so closed to hearing new evidence from numerous experts and whistle blowers in the CDC. Andrew Wakefield's motivation is only to help the public be exposed to and consider other evidence and challenge our beliefs in "what could be plausible."

Mr. De Niro's decision to allow the film to be screened at Tribeca, publically supporting the discussion then pulling back only supports the need more for the discussion to happen. The amplification that the movie received over less than a week of exposure shows that there is public interest. For the good of advancing a proper conversation about autism and vaccines, we petition the Tribeca Film Festival to put Vaxxed back on the schedule and allow the discussion to happen, peacefully in a public format.