We’ve all heard of the term “anti-vaxxer”, but not all of us know where this big anti-vaccine movement came from, and even more so (unfortunately), not all of us know why its origins have wrongly founded an unnecessary, ignorant, and paranoid mentality.
Everything Wrong With Wakefield
According to NCBI, this all started back in 1998 when The Lancet, a major medical journal, published a research study by Andrew Wakefield, a gastroenterological surgeon and medical researcher at that time. In the study that he published, it was implied that there was a causational relationship between the MMR vaccine and the development of autism and IBD in children. As expected, the results of this study caused mass hysteria; the nature of this study targets the worries of parents with young children that are concerned about the possibility of a serious, debilitating disease. However, if you look at the study itself, there are many alarming things that stand out that threaten the validity of the scientific research. Firstly, there was only a small sample size of 12 children in his study, there was no control group, there are too many variables (autism, MMR, and IBD) to be able to determine causation, the study was conducted during a time with an increase in autism rates, and the data came from parents’ observations, a group of fearful people that already have suspicions and will be searching for signs of autism. On top of this, many other researchers have invested thousands of research dollars into proving/disproving his claims, and not one has been able to reach the same conclusions. Not only is the research study formatted extremely poorly, there were consistent contrary results.
It Gets Worse With Wakefield
Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. According to NCBI, there was extensive investigation done on Wakefield and his study, and it was later revealed that there were serious conflicts of interest leading to serious professional misconduct. One of the major funding sources to Wakefield’s study was a lawyer who was fighting an anti-vaccine lawsuit for many people believing that their children’s medical conditions were caused by vaccines. Additionally, that same lawyer directly paid Wakefield to help with his lawsuit, and he helped find some of the test subjects for the study. Wakefield was also developing his own measles vaccine prior to the publication of the study, which would have sold as the “safe alternative” to the MMR vaccine that he would deliberately cause fear/paranoia towards with lying about unfavorable data. Even after all of this was revealed, and his study was retracted, he continued to gain supporters, and even opened a “non-profit” clinic despite losing his medical license, and received a suspicious annual salary of nearly $300,000.
Lasting Consequences
To this day, there is still a good amount of people that distrust vaccines, and thus refuse to vaccinate their children. What this translates to is the resurfacing of previously almost completely suppressed diseases, and endangerment of the general public due to ignorance. According to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), measles is one of said diseases that were relatively contained before, and now have been, and continue to, spread in global outbreaks. In fact, there had been more measles cases within the first 6 months of 2019 than any year since 2006, and there had been approximately three times as many cases reported in 2019 as there were at this same time last year. Currently, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Madagascar are reporting the most measles activity, but other countries such as Nigeria, Philippines, Sudan, etc. are also having major outbreaks. The reason for these outbreaks can be attributed to the fact that these countries have extremely low vaccination rates, but even for the United States, which is a country with high vaccination rates, measles are being brought in by international travelers, and the dedication and frequency of getting the full MMR vaccine (that covers measles, mumps, and rubella) has decreased significantly. When the measles is as contagious as it is, requiring a community level 95% vaccination rate to prevent sustained transmission, a vulnerable population stands little to no chance against the damaging effects of such a virus.
Reflection
I cannot stress enough how important it is to get educated. The fact that so many people still succumb to the disproven lies that are the foundation to the anti-vaccination movement is honestly infuriating. Additionally, it is an extremely selfish decision that destroys herd immunity, which is crucial to the survival of those who are unable to protect themselves (young children, the elderly, and the immunocompromised). As a society, it is our duty to be educated, and it is our duty to do our part for the greater good of the public’s health.
The Magic Struggle Bus 