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Robert DeNiro previously defended an anti-vaccine documentary. Richard Shotwell/AP

Robert DeNiro backs $100k reward pushed by anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists

It comes as a controversial documentary is released in Ireland.

ACTOR ROBERT DE Niro has backed a discredited anti-vaccine campaign that has offered a $100,000 reward for scientific evidence.

The campaign is led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who claims that mercury in childhood vaccines in the US can cause a number of conditions including autism.

The US Center for Disease Control has unequivocally refuted the claims and has a section on its website entitled: Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism.

As part of his World Mercury Project, Kennedy argues specifically against the use of vaccine preservative Thimerosal.

Again the CDC refutes the claims, pointing out that Thimerosal has long since been reduced to trace elements in US vaccines.

The websites further states that at least nine studies have proven that there is no link between Thimerosal and autism.

Despite this, at an event in Washington yesterday, Kennedy and DeNiro offered $100,000 for anyone who can “find a peer-reviewed scientific study demonstrating that Thimerosal is safe”.

It is not the first time DeNiro, who has a son on the autism spectrum, has lent support to “anti-vaxx” campaigners.

Last year he included the controversial documentary Vaxxed at his Tribeca Film Festival before an outcry from the medical community saw DeNiro pull the film.

The film is by disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield who was previously accused by the British Medical Council of acting “dishonestly” for faulty research he published about the MMR vaccine.

The Vaxxed documentary has just been released on DVD in Ireland and the UK and Wakefield was present at a screening of the film in London on Tuesday.

Anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists in Ireland have invited Wakefield to speak here but as yet no appearance has been confirmed.

Read: ‘Hearsay on social media’ being blamed for falling vaccine rates >

Read: The amount of young girls getting the HPV vaccine has dropped significantly >

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237 Comments
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    Mute Pat Daly
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 7:42 AM

    Typical of the attitude of the Munster branch towards the club’s choosing to dictate rather then support when it comes to spending money gained on the back of the grass roots

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    Mute Cormac Ó Braonáin
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 6:07 PM

    @Pat Daly: in fairness Dolphin’s reasoning was pretty weak? Privacy? FFS

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    Mute Martin Sinnott
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 7:43 AM

    A few more pictures needed

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    Mute prop joe
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 9:49 AM

    @Martin Sinnott: i’ll be honest the way it is now is fine. Building a massive concrete wall would look terrible never mind be very expensive.

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    Mute prop joe
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 5:57 PM

    @Martin Sinnott: basically its a security fence and you can see onto the pitches. I don’t see a problem with this fence. A concrete wall would look terrible.

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    Mute Trevor Donoghue
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 2:46 PM

    So the club sold the land to Mc donalds to build a mc donalds on and now the club is annoyed that mc donalds built a mcdonalds?

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    Mute Rossi Rossborough
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 3:51 PM

    @Trevor Donoghue:

    Lol, pretty much!

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    Mute Michael Kavanagh
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 6:53 AM

    Sounds like a ‘line break’ to me!

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    Mute eastsmer
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 11:56 AM

    Munster Rugby was also the entity which sold the McDonald’s site to the fast food franchise in the first place.

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    Mute Charlie Hunter
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 8:41 AM

    They should organise a protest a la Doonbeg wall scenario, get rent-a-mob down in numbers and overturn the ruling on humanitarian grounds …be handy for the protestors too with a McDonald’s in the vicinity for a bit of grub when they’re famished from all the chanting.

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    Mute Gerry Fallon
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 11:02 AM

    So you can sit in McDonald’s eating your big Mac and watch a crap rugby team play.
    Is it more to do with embarrassment than anything else?

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    Mute Rossi Rossborough
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 3:45 PM

    @Gerry Fallon:
    Gerry you are a, emmmmm, oh I know .
    A spastic!!!

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    Mute Paul Holland
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    Jul 2nd 2018, 12:55 PM

    I never like conflict like this because people lose and money goes on legal fees. I don’t know enough to form an honest opinion but I would say to the rugby club – you mightn’t be as badly off as the GAA were in Limerick when they tried to develop Punch Park in the city decades ago

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    Mute Eilish Kelly
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    Jul 4th 2018, 9:51 AM

    why don’t they build a wooden 8ft fence on there side of the boundary line. They could even paint a mural on the side facing out to McDonald’s on how playing GAA makes u fit ,healthy and part of the community ,Were eating junk food (burgers) makes u fat and unhealthy

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