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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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In Our View: A Dose of Prevention

Another study shows that vaccinations prevent disease, do not cause autism

The Columbian
Published:

From the in-case-you-missed-it file, we bring you this bit of news: “The vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella doesn’t bring an increased risk of autism, according to a new study of more than 95,000 children.”

That is the summary of a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. According to media reports, “the researchers paid particular attention to children who had older siblings with autism, or ASD, which puts them at a higher genetic risk of developing autism.”

Most readers probably are not surprised by the news, considering that other studies have reached similar conclusions. But because of the fact that the anti-vaccine movement in this country remains strong and vocal, the information is worth sharing. Because of the fact that many parents decline to have their children vaccinated, the point is worth belaboring. Avoiding routine vaccinations not only endangers your child, it endangers those around them and the general health of the public.

That is one of the salient points that vaccine opponents routinely ignore. While they suggest that avoiding vaccines is a personal choice that leaves only their child at risk, they fail to recognize that many people are unable to receive the vaccine because of unrelated health problems, and therefore are vulnerable. They also fail to acknowledge the notion of herd immunity — mass inoculations that help prevent viruses from undergoing mutations that render vaccines ineffective. Furthermore, vaccine opponents have taken to spreading provably false information about deaths caused by the MMR vaccine.

Not that the most strident anti-vaxxers are likely to pay attention to yet another study that debunks their beliefs. Since the movement was given a shot in the arm — so to speak — by fraudulent research from British doctor Andrew Wakefield in 1998, fear of vaccines has been pandemic. Wakefield published a now-discredited paper suggesting a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, failing to note that he had been paid by lawyers who were seeking a basis for lawsuits on behalf of clients with autism, or that he had applied for a patent on his own measles vaccine and therefore had reason to discredit the current vaccine.

Wakefield was a charlatan, and his medical license has been revoked in Britain. Yet the damage he caused continues to spread in this country. “Although there is a lot of research suggesting that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism spectrum disorder, those beliefs continue to persist,” said Anjali Jain, a pediatrician who worked on the latest study.

While the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine — along with a measles outbreak in the United States this past winter — has received the bulk of the attention, the issue of vaccines also is relevant in the fight against other diseases. This week, Clark County health officials served notice about an outbreak of whooping cough, a bacterial disease that has a mortality rate of 1.6 percent for infected children younger than 1. “We take all of these diseases seriously,” said Dr. Alan Melnick, public health director and county health officer. “They’re diseases that can kill people or make them very sick. And they’re preventable.”

Therein lies the crux of the matter — the diseases are preventable. A little more than a decade ago, measles was considered eradicated in the United States, but last year there were 592 cases. As yet another study has pointed out, the fear that has led to that revival is unfounded.

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