Andrew Wakefield was a researcher who published the infamous paper in the Lancet that directly connected Autism to vaccines. The study gained wide publicity and many people began to get worried about vaccines even though the sample size of the study was only twelve children. The sample size of only twelve children is very concerning for how widely accepted it became in the public, because that is a very small number of children to make any sort of conclusions about an entire vaccine or disorder. The children used for the study were all referred to the Royal Free Hospital for chronic enterocolitis and regressive development disorder. The previously used article states that of the twelve children used eight of their parents believed that the MMR vaccine had caused their children’s Autism. This is quite shocking that the parents already had a bias about the study before it was even conducted.
The first article states that there was twelve other colleagues of Wakefield’s that also worked together to publish the article in Lancet. After the paper was published ten of the twelve colleagues decided to submit a retraction saying that they did not believe there was direct link between Autism and the MMR vaccine. This shows that even the scientists who were helping Wakefield with this study did not believe that their study proved any linkage between the MMR vaccine and Autism. The first article also states that Wakefield and his colleagues had failed to inform Lancet that they had been funded by lawyers who had been approached by parents who wanted to sue vaccine companies. This is interesting because it could possibly mean that Wakefield was getting financial gain from making sure that his study proved there was a link between Autism and the MMR vaccine.
The measles was almost completely eradicated in the early 2000s but within the last five to ten years there has been a resurgence in cases. The article states from the years 2014 to present day there has been an overwhelming amount of cases of outbreaks of the measles in younger children all across the United States. The increased number of outbreaks was very shocking and shows that even less people are vaccinating their children. The article also states that parents who are vaccine hesitant are compromising herd immunity which is leading to more outbreaks. This means that while lots of times parents use herd immunity as an excuse for not vaccinating their child if everyone proceeds to do this then herd immunity will be damaged or no longer exist.
Chloe's Microbiology Blog 