How Fear of the Measles Vaccine Took Hold

October 15, 2019
Has lesson plan
Updated

Skepticism and fear surrounding vaccines were fed by a flawed study done in 1998 linking the MMR vaccine to autism. The study was quickly discredited, we’re still dealing with the repercussions.

Vaccines are one of the greatest achievements in the history of public health. So why are we always hearing about the reappearance of a disease like measles that we thought had been eradicated? And why does the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella generate debate, even though its safety has been proven repeatedly? Skepticism and fear surrounding vaccines were fed by a flawed study done in 1998. The study was quickly discredited, but years later, we’re still dealing with the repercussions.

View full episodes at PBS.org/RetroReport.

Related: A Discredited Vaccine Study’s Continuing Impact on Public Health by Clyde Haberman

Previous versions
At Retro Report, we update our journalism as news unfolds. Here are the previous published versions of this story.
For teachers
  • Producer: Bonnie Bertram
  • Producer: Erik German
  • Editor: Sandrine Isambert
  • Reporter: Meral Agish
  • Additional Reporter: Sianne Garlick
Related Videos
‘Another Player Down’: How Concern About Injuries Is Changing Sports
Get history in your inbox
Sign up for Retro Report’s news and education newsletters.
Sign up
Healing the Ozone: First Steps Toward Success 
Beekeepers and Scientists Join Forces to Protect the Pollinators
The Crime That Fueled an Asian American Civil Rights Movement
Nuclear Meltdowns Raised Fears, but Growing Energy Needs May Outweigh Them
Extremism in America (full film)
Midterm Elections: How 1994 Midterms Set Off an Era of Divisive Politics
Covid Deaths Left Orphans. The Stress of That Loss May Carry Lifelong Risks.
The Weight of Stigma: Heavier Patients Confront a Bias
How the U.S. Has Treated Wartime Refugees

For Educators

Subjects
Media and News Literacy
Topics
1980s 2000s Coronavirus Health Science 
Introduction

This 12-minute video shows how fear of vaccines were fed by flawed research. It is useful for lessons focused on the challenges of the 21st century, or for lessons in how interest groups influence policy making. As a case study illustrating false equivalency, the importance of clear public health messaging and the impact of emotional stories on the public, this video can be used to teach journalism.

Background reading
▼

Vaccines have long been considered one of the most important advances in public health, from the first vaccine for smallpox in 1796, to Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine in 1955.

So why do diseases like measles that we thought had been eradicated keep reappearing? And why does the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella generate controversy, even though its safety has been proven repeatedly? Skepticism and fears surrounding vaccines were fed by a flawed study done in 1998. The study was quickly discredited, but years later, we’re still dealing with the repercussions.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a British gastroenterologist, published a paper in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, noting a possible connection between the MMR vaccine and autism.

Wakefield urged that MMR immunization be suspended until more research could be done. Some news outlets quickly picked up the story and ran with it, raising alarm among parents of young children.

A series of investigations in England concluded that Wakefield had falsified results in his paper, and had produced no evidence connecting the MMR vaccine to autism. The Lancet withdrew the article. Wakefield was barred from practicing medicine in 2010.

These facts did little to slow a building movement across the United States and Europe by people who insisted that the MMR vaccine was unsafe.

The movement was fed by erroneous news reports that created a false equivalency between a parent’s experience and scientific consensus. This misstep has become more clear over time: Studies on tens and thousands of children have found no connection between the MMR vaccine and autism.

Now, as scientists around the globe race to discover a vaccine for Covid-19, it is critical to remember the lessons from this episode.

Lesson Plan 1: Influencing Public Policy: Vaccines
Overview
▼

Students will learn about the importance to public health of vaccines. They will gain news literacy by examining troubled reporting and public health messaging around the measles vaccine, and discover why we’re dealing with the repercussions today.

Objectives
▼
  • How a persistent minority of Americans came to question the vaccine science.
  • How the language used by scientists, the tools used by news media, and scientific fraud have encouraged public questioning of vaccine science.
  • How questioning of vaccine science led to a recent outbreak of measles.
Essential questions
▼
  • Why are vaccines often a victim of their own success?
  • What role did Dr. Andrew Wakefield play in encouraging public skepticism of vaccines?
  • How has the language of science created confusion about vaccines?
  • What role has the news media played in spreading misinformation about vaccines?
Additional resources
▼
Standards
▼
  • Common Core State Standards
    • CCSS.ELA.LITERACY.RH.11-12.7:Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
    • CCSS.ELA.LITERACY.RI.11-12.3:Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequences of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact or develop over the course of a text.
  • National Council for the Social Studies C3 Framework
    • D2.Geo.12.9-12. Evaluate the consequences of human-made and natural catastrophes on global trade, politics, and human migration.
  • AP U.S. History
    • Topic 9.6: Challenges of the 21st Century

      Skill 5.B: Explain how a historical development relates to another historical development.

      Theme 8: Social Structures (SOC)