Influencing Public Policy: Vaccines

Vaccines have long been considered one of the most important advances in public health, from the first vaccine for smallpox in 1796, to Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine in 1955.

So why do diseases like measles that we thought had been eradicated keep reappearing? And why does the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella generate controversy, even though its safety has been proven repeatedly? Skepticism and fears surrounding vaccines were fed by a flawed study done in 1998. The study was quickly discredited, but years later, we’re still dealing with the repercussions.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a British gastroenterologist, published a paper in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, noting a possible connection between the MMR vaccine and autism.

Wakefield urged that MMR immunization be suspended until more research could be done. Some news outlets quickly picked up the story and ran with it, raising alarm among parents of young children.

A series of investigations in England concluded that Wakefield had falsified results in his paper, and had produced no evidence connecting the MMR vaccine to autism. The Lancet withdrew the article. Wakefield was barred from practicing medicine in 2010.

These facts did little to slow a building movement across the United States and Europe by people who insisted that the MMR vaccine was unsafe.

The movement was fed by erroneous news reports that created a false equivalency between a parent’s experience and scientific consensus. This misstep has become more clear over time: Studies on tens and thousands of children have found no connection between the MMR vaccine and autism.

Now, as scientists around the globe race to discover a vaccine for Covid-19, it is critical to remember the lessons from this episode.