British Youth Paying Price Of Wakefield Vaccine Scare
Measles cases have soared in the UK, making it second in Europe behind only Romania in the number of cases. Last year the UK had 2,000 cases and so far this year it has had 1,200, putting it on track for another record breaking year. Of those sickened, about 20 have been hospitalized with serious complications including pneumonia and meningitis. In 1998 a paper published by Andrew Wakefield and others suggested there was a link between the measles vaccine and autism. As a result, measles vaccination levels plummeted in the UK, from 90% of children down to 54%. The measles epidemic now hitting the UK is a direct consequence of this failure.
I had a child when the scare hit, and I sympathize to a degree with the parents who thought they were doing right by their children by avoiding the vaccine. The parental instinct is to protect your child, and exposing him or her to dangerous agents intentionally, trusting faceless authorities to have done their due diligence and provide a safe vaccine isn’t easy, especially while no vaccine has zero side effects and every instance of those who did experience them gets press while nothing is written about those vaccinated and exposed to measles who were protected from the disease. Wakefield’s paper and the press he received from it fed into a natural suspicion people have for authority. Skipping the vaccine seemed sensible, especially since doing so had no immediate effect as herd immunity offered some protection for the unvaccinated.
Around my hometown of St. Louis there are several high schools and colleges run by Christian Scientists, a religious sect that believes in the power of prayer instead of the science of Medicine. While this may seem quaint or irrational to those of us in the 21st century, at the time Mary Baker Eddy founded the group in the late 19th century Germ Theory had yet to become orthodoxy in Medicine and it wasn’t until the 1920’s that going to a doctor offered any benefit as opposed to staying at home. In fact hospitals at the time were good places to get sicker. Students at these schools are not vaccinated, and measles outbreaks are common and deaths from the disease are not unknown. Either God had an ax to grind with the Christian Scientists or measles vaccination was a pretty good idea. Perhaps the Brits would have benefited from the presence of this sect on their territory to see what happens when children aren’t vaccinated, but it’s doubtful. The specter of Autism is pretty powerful, especially when authorities have been wrong so often in the past.
But in this case they weren’t wrong; Dr. Wakefield was, and kids are paying the price for his mistake and their parents’ bad decisions.
Leave a comment