Texas District Attorney who declared ‘vaccines cause autism’ gets the boot from voters

In a promotional video for the 2016 anti-vaxxer film Vaxxed: From Cover up to Catastrophe, the district attorney for San Antonio’s Bexar County made an appearance with his wife and gave their testimonials about the “vaccine injuries” their two children allegedly sustained.

“I’m Nico LaHood. I’m the criminal district attorney in San Antonio, Texas. I’m here to tell you vaccines can and do cause autism,” he says at the outset of the video.

“Our oath as prosecutors is to seek justice,” LaHood continues. “So what I do, is I follow evidence. I’m an empirical data guy … give me objective evidence, I’m gonna do what’s right with that information.”

If empirical data is LaHood’s specialty, his skills are grossly inept. Since Andrew Wakefield‘s fraudulent study linking vaccines to autism in children was roundly debunked, numerous studies since then have reinforced the fact that there is no link between vaccinations and the developmental disorder.

Thankfully, LaHood won’t be utilizing his inability to analyze evidence in the public sector anymore. According to local news reports, he lost a primary challenge to Joe Gonzales, with a whopping 61 percent voters favoring Gonzales.

Unsurprisingly, LaHood attributed his loss to another favorite target of conspiracy theorists: George Soros.

“In my opinion the voters were unfairly influenced by $1 million worth of lies. There’s no other way to say it,” LaHood told supporters at a post-election gathering.

As the Friendly Atheist‘s Hemant Mehta points out, LaHood has a history of questionable views and conduct, which include Islamophobic comments to withholding exculpatory evidence in a murder case. “He was really a Republican who pretended to be a Democrat,” Mehta writes.

Featured image via screen grab

 

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.