The Problem with the Anti-Vaccine Movement: It’s a conspiracy theory
The Movement
As mentioned in my post about how vaccines work, vaccines are arguably the single most important medical achievement in history. They have saved millions of lives and continue to do so. For over a century, getting vaccinated against certain diseases was a no brainer. People understood that there is great benefit with little risk.
But recently, some people have lost trust in vaccines. They believe, or rather have been misled to believe, that vaccines are very dangerous and have much more frequent serious side effects than they actually do. You may have even heard that vaccines (specifically the MMR vaccine) cause autism (a developmental disorder) in children. If that’s true, then that’s a BIG DEAL! Hearing this should make you question our use of vaccines.
*MMR stands for “measles, mumps, and rubella.” The MMR vaccine vaccinates against all three illnesses.*
COVID vaccine disclaimer as of 2/22/22:
I feel it necessary to say that the Anti-Vaxxers and Anti-Vaccine Movement that I am referencing in this article have nothing to do with the more recent COVID-19 vaccine and its proponents and/or opponents. I generally try to avoid inserting my political views on this blog so I will just say this: In general, I am for the COVID-19 vaccine and I recommend it for anyone it’s available to. However, I personally do not consider those hesitant of or against the COVID-19 vaccine the same as traditional Anti-Vaxxers. If you would like to know my personal opinions regarding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and such, let’s eat a meal and hang out in person. 🙂
Asking questions is a good thing. Questioning the safety of vaccines is a smart thing to do. Any possible link between taking the MMR vaccine and developing autism would definitely be something to be concerned about. No one should ever be upset with you for asking questions or looking for answers. That’s actually what science is all about. The problem is choosing to ignore the correct answer to the question when you find it.
Let’s say the windshield wipers on your car are no longer working so you take it in to the mechanic. To diagnose the problem, the mechanic first asks a question: Why? After some testing he determines that you simply need new windshield wipers installed. Well, you have a friend who recently had new windshield wipers installed on his car, and shortly thereafter, his car started having engine trouble. You don’t want any engine trouble, so you decide to not fix your windshield wipers. Makes sense, right? Of course it doesn’t.
Welcome to the anti-vaccine movement.
Eventually you’re going to find yourself in the rain accidentally rear-ending someone (or worse) because you simply didn’t replace your windshield wipers. Just because your friend’s engine started having problems shortly after getting new windshield wipers does not mean that fixing the wipers caused the engine issues. However, that’s what the anti-vaccine movement does. It draws inappropriate lines between unrelated events. The even larger issue is that autism is an actual problem we’d like to solve. However, we will never solve it and subsequently improve people’s lives if we continue pursuing a red herring rather than further investigating the actual cause and cure.
So what created this anti-vaccine movement?
Lies and manipulation, that’s what. In 1998, a former doctor named Andrew Wakefield published a scientific paper that claimed a strong connection with a particular vaccine (MMR vaccine) and the development of autism in children. Specifically, the paper suggested that a specific ingredient of the MMR vaccine, thimerosal, was to blame for the increasing rates of autism in children. This was huge news! Many more scientists began to study this relationship, hoping to learn more about the dangers of this vaccine and perhaps even discover a potential cause and cure for autism.
However, after multiple studies and millions of dollars what they found instead is that there is no evidence that any vaccine in general, the MMR vaccine in particular, or thimerosal alone caused autism. Eventually, the truth came out that Mr. Wakefield had faked his data to show the result he wanted. Not only did he straight up lie to everyone in his paper, but he also mistreated patients and developmentally delayed children. All of Mr. Wakefield’s papers on the subject were discredited and retracted, his medical degree was taken away, and he lost any credibility among academic institutions worldwide. It was all a lie.
But the damage had been done. The general public had heard Mr. Wakefield’s claim and began to distrust the MMR vaccine. Eventually a celebrity, Jenny McCarthy, heard the disturbing “news” and began speaking about it publicly. Pretty soon, many people were worried about the dangers of the MMR vaccine. To be clear, this was a reasonable and understandable response as there was reason to believe such reality. However, even after all Mr. Wakefield’s evidence had been proven to be fake and his credibility lost, Ms. McCarthy and others refused to stop spreading the big lie that the MMR vaccine causes autism in children, as well as other lies about vaccines in general.
Years later, there is now an entire movement of people who believe vaccines (not just the MMR vaccine) cause autism and many other issues even when there is absolutely no evidence of such. Quite the opposite, actually.
The Issue
The entire anti-vaccine movement was started by a rumor. And it persists today because some people are close-minded, refusing to acknowledge mountains of evidence that vaccines are very safe. There is a logical error known as “confirmation bias” in which people reach a conclusion before examining any evidence. Therefore, they twist facts in a way that supports their belief and ignore any information that doesn’t, often by discrediting it. They also draw inappropriate lines between unrelated events. For example, the MMR vaccine just happens to be routinely given at or just before the age that autism usually becomes apparent enough to diagnose. That does not mean the vaccine caused autism, just like getting your friend’s windshield wipers replaced did not cause his engine trouble. Another term for this phenomenon of confirmation bias and connecting unrelated events is “conspiracy theory.”
So the anti-vaccine conspiracy theory has unfortunately gained a lot of momentum despite being based on faked evidence. Its followers, called “anti-vaxxers,” have become blindly religious in their support over the years. They make all sorts of nonsensical claims while simultaneously completely ignoring tons of real science that shows that vaccines are very safe and beneficial.
Why should I care about what they believe?
Lots of children are dying from easily avoidable diseases. That’s why.
Remember getting sick from smallpox? Oh, you don’t? You can thank vaccines. Smallpox killed hundreds of millions of people before vaccines existed. Today, no one contracts or dies from smallpox. A modern day example, measles, killed over 140,000 people in 2018 alone, mostly children under 5. The measles vaccine (first “M” in MMR vaccine) has saved an estimated 23 million lives over the past 18 years (source). With continued vaccination, we could literally eliminate measles pretty quickly. But the anti-vaccine conspiracy is starting to reverse any progress we’ve made in eliminating the disease. The witty phrase, “vaccines cause adults,” often circulates online. It’s true.
Also, we’re wasting millions of dollars to find out what we already know. Ever since that initial fake research paper, tons of money has been spent conducting studies to further investigate the dangers of vaccines. That’s fine; however, even after tons of clear evidence of their safety we still are continuing to waste money on even more studies and education to combat the false information and fake science being spread by anti-vaxxers. These millions of dollars could have been spent finding a cure for another pressing disease, such as cancer.
What’s the truth?
The truth is that vaccines are incredibly safe, like 99.9% safe. In fact, eating solid food is more dangerous (source 1, source 2). The restrictions, regulations, and safety guidelines put on vaccines are much more strict than any other medications. That’s why when a new deadly epidemic or pandemic arises, it’s usually long over by the time a new vaccine can be approved and get to the market for use. Additionally, the medical community is quick to withdraw it should any potential issue arise. For example, the initial (fake) issue with the MMR vaccine was with a specific ingredient, thimerosal. Even though thimerosal has been shown to be safe to use in vaccines, it has not been used in any childhood vaccine since 2001 (source).
Despite this precaution, however, autism rates in the U.S. have continued to rise. Admittedly we don’t know exactly why this is, but we do know it’s not because of vaccines.
The anti-vaccine movement has made clear that no amount of proof will convince some people of reality. To be clear I’m not trying to fool you. Nothing in medicine is risk-free, and vaccines are no exception. I talk about some of the real risks of vaccines in my post about how vaccines work. Even so, vaccines are extremely safe, have saved millions of lives, and do not cause autism. Therefore, it’s time to move our efforts away from debating with the anti-vaccine movement and toward new discoveries that will help improve the lives of those around us.
Learn more, stay humble.
After writing this post I felt the need to follow it up with another post explaining that not everyone against vaccines are simply tricksters, many are loving and caring parents that have had some terrible experiences surrounding vaccines. I wanted to attempt to dive into their perspective a little more. I attempted to do that a bit in this post, if you’re interested.
TL;DR: Vaccines are extremely safe and they DO NOT cause autism. The Anti-Vaccine movement was founded on fake information.
