The anti-vaxxing movement has been gaining momentum since Andrew Wakefield’s claim that vaccines are linked to autism. Although his paper has been completely debunked and retracted the prevalence of people not vaccinating their children is raising at alarming rates. Provisional date from the World Health Organization indicates that in the first six months of 2019, there were more measles cases reported worldwide than in any year since 2006. This giant leap in outbreaks is a substantial step from its once former declaration of eradication in various countries. Countries retracting their “measles-free status” include the UK, Albania, the Czech Republic, and Greece.
The decrease in vaccination numbers have taken the hardest toll in Europe. There were 84,000 cases of measles in 2018 a striking difference from the 5,000 cases in 2016. Andrew Wakefield’s false publication has been given more attention and induced more fears among parents in the UK, maybe because that was where his idea initially began. A survey of 2,600 parents concluded that 21% of parents in the UK believe that vaccines may cause unwanted side effects and nearly 10% of those surveyed did not vaccinate their children. Some may believe that their children will be protected by “herd immunity” however, in order for it to be effective 90-95% of the population must be vaccinated, and that is not the case anymore. It does not help that the measles are extremely contagious, with 9 out of 10 unprotected people getting infected.
I think it is absolutely insane what people will believe without doing actual research. If those choosing not to vaccinate their children did one quick internet search they would find that the link that Andrew Wakefield outlined was completely falsified and there was no scientific evidence to back any of his claims up. They would have also found a study of over 650,000 children in Denmark, some of which were high-risk for autism, concluded that there was no evidence of a connection between the measles vaccine (or MMR) an autism. Aside from the obvious reasons that people should vaccinate their children, vaccination is also promoted by the NHS and WHO. It really comes down to, in my opinion that there is blind ignorance to the world of vaccines and people will believe anything put in front of them, as long as it’s a good story.
jill and micro 