The Lantern

Issue date: 5/5/08 Section: Opinion

The Centers for Disease Control, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and England's National Health Service all agree: Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccines do not cause autism. Within 10 years of the vaccine's licensing, the number of cases of measles in the United States fell by roughly 400,000. Mumps and rubella were also much more common prior to the vaccine's introduction.

The vaccine has resulted in nothing short of a medical miracle. Unfortunately, according to The New York Times, the number of measles cases has increased in recent years, and the primary reason is fewer parents are having their kids vaccinated.

In 1998, Andrew Wakefield, a Canadian surgeon, published a joint paper with 12 other authors that suggested vaccines might cause autism. The paper's subjects, 12 children, exhibited autistic-like behavior shortly after receiving their vaccines. Since the paper's publication, 10 of its 13 authors have disassociated themselves with its faulty conclusion. Despite having been discredited, the paper triggered a controversy that has resulted in a decline of vaccination rates.

The number of autism cases has increased within the past ten years - long after the introduction of the vaccine. Changes in diagnostic practices have allowed doctors to detect the condition at earlier ages and in more people. However, a group of particularly angry parents have decided to take Wakefield's faulty findings and form an interest group. The peculiar strength of the autism lobby is damaging to public health, for the increase in skepticism of vaccines has unfortunately led to more people contracting infectious diseases.

None of the three remaining presidential candidates have been responsible with this issue. John McCain, whose ignorance on a vast range of issues is well documented, was the first of the candidates to voice his idiotic suspicion that vaccines lead to autism. Rather than distinguish themselves from a candidate who not only is wrong about vaccines but who also has a lengthy history of being completely off-base on most other issues, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have also suggested skepticism in vaccines while masking their idiotic comments in the language of "needing more research."

Although these statements are not substantive policy, they have real consequences. The more people are skeptical about vaccines, the less likely they are to have their children vaccinated. The infectious diseases that vaccines fight still have potentially fatal consequences. Like all other public health crises they also have real costs, as they divert financial and medical resources to treat diseases that could have been prevented with a simple vaccine.

Finally, the carelessness of many of our politicians over scientific issues reinforces the need for scientists to flex a little political muscle. Unfortunately, the group Science Debate 2008 has had no success in getting a presidential debate focusing exclusively on scientific issues.

But the silly controversy over vaccines has shown the real danger in our anti-intellectual approach to politics. Skeptics of vaccines, climate change and human evolution have national microphones.

Meanwhile, the number of measles cases is still increasing.

Matt Struhar can be reached at can be reached at struhar.1@osu.edu.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools