The Craziest Link: Vaccines and Autism Nine percent of Americans believe that vaccines are dangerous; another seven percent do not even know what to say about the issue (Anderson). This small, but vociferous, percent of Americans are the ones propelling the modern war against vaccines. The so called anti-vaccine movement is a fight as old as vaccines themselves. Nonetheless, the most recent controversy, dating around two decades, has to do with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD or simply autism), which is a “developmental disability that causes significant social, communication, and behavioral challenges” (United States Dept. of Health, “Facts” 1). Moreover, some parents are also concerned about the ingredients in vaccines. Yet, science has proven …show more content…
Since the beginning, parents and scientists seemed skeptical about the idea of using vaccines; most people feared their children will become a type of mutant due to the nature of the vaccines (Callahan 5). However, as time passed and more children were not contracting deadly diseases, people adopted vaccines as a normal part of their life. Everything seemed to be running well for the vaccines, until the appearance of Andrew Wakefield in 1998. Wakefield, along with other 12 authors, published a paper in the well-known British medical journal The Lancet, which included a supposition that the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine was responsible for the increasing rates of autism all over the world (Mnookin 107). The paper discussed the cases of eight children who were supposedly diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (inflammation of the digestive track) and autism symptoms after receiving MMR vaccination (Ziv 13). The study was obviously controversial since the beginning, which is why several of its authors agreed that more research was necessary to reach a conclusion; nevertheless, in a press conference prior to the paper’s publication Wakefield stated, “I cannot support the continued use of the three vaccines given together. We need to know what the role of gut [bowel] inflammation is in autism” (qtd. in Mnookin 107-108). With this accretion, Wakefield had just started the new war against vaccines; one that is still being fought