So I’m sure by now most people have heard the jokes about vaccinations and autism all over social media. Maybe you’ve heard of the “anti-vax” parents who refuse to vaccinate their children out of fear that they’ll become autistic. But where did talk like this originate? Back in 1998, Dr. Andrew Wakefield published a study in which he claimed to have found an association between the MMR vaccine and the development of autism in children. According to an article from the Canadian Medical Association Journal written by Laura Eggertson, Wakefield included 12 children (11 boys and 1 girl) as the participants of his study, all of which had been referred to the Royal Free Hospital for chronic enterocolitis and regressive developmental disorder. They were each carefully selected for this particular study. Immediately, the design of this study raises red flags to anyone who’s taken any basic science course and learned anything about experimental design. Twelve participants? Even if the rest of Wakefield’s study was purely honest, transparent, and flawless, it’s pretty clear that 12 patients are not nearly enough to represent an entire population. Facts about the study like these tell me one thing: members of the Anti-Vaccination movement have not truly read this study and critically evaluated it.
Another alarming revelation about the study are the apparent motivations behind it. Lawyers on behalf of parents suing vaccine manufacturers paid Wakefield to conduct the research (Eggertson). This revelation blows my mind. The fact that parents and doctors (both of whom are supposed to care for children) would exploit children like this is absolutely horrifying. As someone who may have my own children someday, I would want to ensure my doctors were telling me accurate information in the best interest of my child. According to another article from the Indian Journal of Psychiatry, other scientists immediately began publishing their own epidemiological studies which refuted Wakefield’s claim that there was a link between the MMR vaccine and the development of autism, and The Lancet retracted the entire article back in 2010. At the VERY least, Wakefield’s study is obviously questionable. The Lancet has truly tarnished their reputation for publishing an article in which was clearly not reviewed properly. Wakefield’s study has far too many weaknesses.
Despite the gross illegitimacy of Wakefield’s report, it has had a huge impact on parents’ decisions on whether or not to vaccinate their children. According to a CDC report, in 2019, there were more worldwide cases of the measles from January to July than in any year since 2006. To combat this, the CDC participates in the Measles and Rubella Initiative in order to promote immunization and prevent outbreaks. When I think about how common these outbreaks are becoming, I think about people who lived in a time before vaccines like MMRV were available. If you could go back in time and tell a person living in the 1800s that all they had to do to protect their child from dying from chicken pox was a simple shot, I think any one of them would take it. These diseases are preventable, and there is absolutely no reason why people should have to die.
Morgan's Microbiology 