March 6, 2023 – A discredited study that falsely linked the MMR vaccine to autism remains to be negatively impacting childhood vaccination rates within the United States and United Kingdom greater than 20 years later, health workers say.
That appears to be the case in Columbus, Ohio, where local health officials found that 80 of 85 children who contracted measles in an outbreak last 12 months were unvaccinated. Parents said they were concerned that the MMR vaccine could trigger autism of their children, a Columbus health department official said. ABC News.
The study, conducted within the United Kingdom in 1998 and The Lancet couldn't prove a link between MMR and autism, but concluded that “further research is needed to investigate this syndrome and its possible association with this vaccine.”
The Lancet withdrew the study after a British newspaper investigation in 2004 uncovered several problems, including a conflict of interest by lead researcher Andrew Wakefield, who was not mentioned within the study and who received financial support from a legal aid organization that took legal motion on behalf of oldsters who believed the MMR vaccine had harmed their children.
Wakefield lost his license, and ten of thirteen co-researchers signed a letter withdrawing their support of the outcomes. Nevertheless, the study discouraged some parents from vaccinating, resulting in measles outbreaks.
“It was an irresponsible publication and it created a firestorm,” Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and chief medical officer within the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told ABC News.
ABC News citing CDC datasaid 90.8% of kids age 24 months have received at the least one dose of MMR vaccine, down from a peak of 91.5% in 2003. Only 93.5% of kindergarten students have received each doses of the vaccine for the 2021-22 school 12 months. That's the bottom percentage in a decade, however the COVID pandemic could also be a partial cause, based on ABC News.
In Britain, the MMR vaccination rate rose from 91% before the publication of the refuted study to 81% in 2004, ABC News reported, citing an independent think tank.
“In 2000, we eradicated measles in the United States, and since then it's been back,” Offit said. “I think the summary of all this for me is that while it's very easy to scare people, it's hard to take the fear away from them.”
Wakefield continues to face by his research and the findings of the 1998 study, ABC News reported.