Measles outbreak threatens world health
Sarah Cheung
Staff Writer
March 2019
Staff Writer
March 2019
Seventeen studies conducted in seven countries, three continents, and involving hundreds of thousands of children. None of which have suggested a link between vaccines and autism.
Yet the anti-vaccination movement persists.
While the majority of the Bay Area supports vaccinating their children, pockets of the U.S. are facing a resurgence of the measles virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 228 cases of measles since the start of 2019, in states like Washington, Texas, and Oregon. This is likely due to resistance of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, or vaccine hesitancy, which the World Health Organization even identified as one of the top 10 global health threats of 2019.
People are afraid that vaccines increase the risk of autism, despite multiple scientific studies disproving any association.
The myth started in 1998, when Andrew Wakefield fabricated the results of a study on 12 children to sue MMR vaccine manufacturers. Investigations invalidated the study, however, and multiple studies since then have failed to replicate Wakefield's data.
However, the internet may be keeping fears from dissipating. Biology teacher Sara Shayesteh believes many anti-vax proponents are victims of misinformation.
"There's a lot of access to so many websites now. It's so easy to get onto any webpage and people don't often do their research and due diligence to figure out if a site is legitimate or based off of real science," Shayesteh said.
YouTube and Facebook are examples of two such sites that have especially contributed to the spread of false information.
"I'm deeply troubled by the role digital media plays in perpetuating myths and fears regarding measles — it's undermining the facts on how to safely and effectively prevent measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases," said Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. "For example, recent media reports found that users on YouTube and Facebook are steered to anti-vaccination content, due to the platform's algorithms."
Facebook is currently taking action by trusting leading global health organizations' stance on vaccines, limiting the amount of false medical information in circulation, and removing ads spreading inaccurate facts, as well as disabling any accounts promoting them.
Other factors fueling the anti-vax movement include religious and philosophical beliefs. According to a 2017 study published in PLOS Medicine, 15 "hotspot" cities of unvaccinated kids granted families nonmedical exemptions from vaccines. Brett Guthrie of the U.S. Committee on Energy and Commerce said this means "that most people can opt out for any reason."
Of course, there are legitimate exemptions. Vaccines can harm immunocompromised people and those undergoing cancer treatment. Additionally, vaccines are potentially dangerous for some who do not even appear to have any pre-existing medical conditions.
"The Institute of Medicine has acknowledged… that doctors cannot accurately predict who is more susceptible to vaccine harm due to genetic, biological, and environmental high risk factors," according to the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC). "Despite vaccine science knowledge gaps, medical contraindications have been narrowed by the CDC and medical trade associations so that no family medical history and almost no personal medical history or health condition qualifies for a medical vaccine exemption."
Despite the difficulty of determining how a recipient's body will react, the CDC still urges those without obvious threats to get vaccinated. Herd immunity is intended to protect people who are medically unable to receive shots against disease. When a sufficient portion of the nation's population has built immunity to a disease, there's a much lower chance it will spread amongst the community.
However, the CDC claims herd immunity is only effective when 95 percent of the population is vaccinated. As stated by Diana DeGette, the chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, only 91 percent of Americans are currently vaccinated, and this is a problem.
"Outbreaks, like the one we are seeing with measles, remind us of just how interconnected our communities are," DeGette said. "They remind us of how the decisions of one community can directly affect other communities across the country."
But some states are still pushing back. The American Academy of Pediatrics found that at least 20 states have proposed bills this year that would expand the list of reasons to exempt from vaccinating, including nonmedical ones, and require doctors to provide more information on the risks of vaccines.
The NVIC showed support of these bills in Iowa and Hawaii, and is urging Arizona to support them as well. Arizona state Sen. Paul Boyer even co-sponsored three such bills after he learned that some children were being harmed by vaccines, telling CNN that he felt the state was "not engaging in fully informed consent."
This idea is part of a wider debate. It concerns at what point the government should intervene in citizens' health decisions, especially to the point of declaring those decisions a public health emergency.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb believes the measles outbreaks may motivate federal health agencies to intervene in state laws regarding vaccinations. Gottlieb told CNN, "Some states are engaging in such wide exemptions that they're creating the opportunity for outbreaks on a scale that is going to have national implications."
Until vaccination proponents and adversaries can come to an agreement based on both facts and potential individual circumstances, the U.S. population could continue to experience recurring diseases such as measles. Through objective scientific research, perhaps both sides will be able to acknowledge some validity in each other's rationalizations.
"If there was any one topic that would transcend politics or party lines, this should be it," DeGette said.
Yet the anti-vaccination movement persists.
While the majority of the Bay Area supports vaccinating their children, pockets of the U.S. are facing a resurgence of the measles virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 228 cases of measles since the start of 2019, in states like Washington, Texas, and Oregon. This is likely due to resistance of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, or vaccine hesitancy, which the World Health Organization even identified as one of the top 10 global health threats of 2019.
People are afraid that vaccines increase the risk of autism, despite multiple scientific studies disproving any association.
The myth started in 1998, when Andrew Wakefield fabricated the results of a study on 12 children to sue MMR vaccine manufacturers. Investigations invalidated the study, however, and multiple studies since then have failed to replicate Wakefield's data.
However, the internet may be keeping fears from dissipating. Biology teacher Sara Shayesteh believes many anti-vax proponents are victims of misinformation.
"There's a lot of access to so many websites now. It's so easy to get onto any webpage and people don't often do their research and due diligence to figure out if a site is legitimate or based off of real science," Shayesteh said.
YouTube and Facebook are examples of two such sites that have especially contributed to the spread of false information.
"I'm deeply troubled by the role digital media plays in perpetuating myths and fears regarding measles — it's undermining the facts on how to safely and effectively prevent measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases," said Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. "For example, recent media reports found that users on YouTube and Facebook are steered to anti-vaccination content, due to the platform's algorithms."
Facebook is currently taking action by trusting leading global health organizations' stance on vaccines, limiting the amount of false medical information in circulation, and removing ads spreading inaccurate facts, as well as disabling any accounts promoting them.
Other factors fueling the anti-vax movement include religious and philosophical beliefs. According to a 2017 study published in PLOS Medicine, 15 "hotspot" cities of unvaccinated kids granted families nonmedical exemptions from vaccines. Brett Guthrie of the U.S. Committee on Energy and Commerce said this means "that most people can opt out for any reason."
Of course, there are legitimate exemptions. Vaccines can harm immunocompromised people and those undergoing cancer treatment. Additionally, vaccines are potentially dangerous for some who do not even appear to have any pre-existing medical conditions.
"The Institute of Medicine has acknowledged… that doctors cannot accurately predict who is more susceptible to vaccine harm due to genetic, biological, and environmental high risk factors," according to the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC). "Despite vaccine science knowledge gaps, medical contraindications have been narrowed by the CDC and medical trade associations so that no family medical history and almost no personal medical history or health condition qualifies for a medical vaccine exemption."
Despite the difficulty of determining how a recipient's body will react, the CDC still urges those without obvious threats to get vaccinated. Herd immunity is intended to protect people who are medically unable to receive shots against disease. When a sufficient portion of the nation's population has built immunity to a disease, there's a much lower chance it will spread amongst the community.
However, the CDC claims herd immunity is only effective when 95 percent of the population is vaccinated. As stated by Diana DeGette, the chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, only 91 percent of Americans are currently vaccinated, and this is a problem.
"Outbreaks, like the one we are seeing with measles, remind us of just how interconnected our communities are," DeGette said. "They remind us of how the decisions of one community can directly affect other communities across the country."
But some states are still pushing back. The American Academy of Pediatrics found that at least 20 states have proposed bills this year that would expand the list of reasons to exempt from vaccinating, including nonmedical ones, and require doctors to provide more information on the risks of vaccines.
The NVIC showed support of these bills in Iowa and Hawaii, and is urging Arizona to support them as well. Arizona state Sen. Paul Boyer even co-sponsored three such bills after he learned that some children were being harmed by vaccines, telling CNN that he felt the state was "not engaging in fully informed consent."
This idea is part of a wider debate. It concerns at what point the government should intervene in citizens' health decisions, especially to the point of declaring those decisions a public health emergency.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb believes the measles outbreaks may motivate federal health agencies to intervene in state laws regarding vaccinations. Gottlieb told CNN, "Some states are engaging in such wide exemptions that they're creating the opportunity for outbreaks on a scale that is going to have national implications."
Until vaccination proponents and adversaries can come to an agreement based on both facts and potential individual circumstances, the U.S. population could continue to experience recurring diseases such as measles. Through objective scientific research, perhaps both sides will be able to acknowledge some validity in each other's rationalizations.
"If there was any one topic that would transcend politics or party lines, this should be it," DeGette said.