Vilifying Vaccines

Vaccines have done more than any other medical innovation to save lives and improve health. Yet the persistent and incorrect belief by a minority of parents that immunizations are more dangerous than beneficial is undermining those advances. The anti-vaccine movement that first took hold in the U.S. and parts of Europe is now spreading globally, with the World Health Organization including “vaccine hesitancy” in its Top 10 list of health threats for 2019. At a time when 3 million people worldwide die of infections that could be averted by vaccines each year, public-health officials worry that eradication efforts are losing ground.

Vaccine-preventable diseases are making a comeback in the U.S. and Europe, while efforts to slow them in poorer countries have stalled. Although vaccination eliminated measles from the U.S. in 2000, international travelers have brought the virus back each year since and sparked outbreaks among the unprotected. The situation is worse in Europe, where more than 82,000 people contracted the disease in 2018 and 72 died. Measles is on the rise throughout the world, with outbreaks reported in every region. The number of deaths rose to 110,000 globally in 2017, up from less than 90,000 a year earlier. And it’s not just measles. Whooping cough, which can be lethal for babies, has remained at elevated levels since 2012, when it killed 20 people in the U.S. and 10 in the U.K. The number of children going unprotected from a variety of contagious illnesses has grown amid grassroots campaigns to convince parents incorrectly that immunizations often trigger side effects such as autism, a developmental disorder associated with difficulties in speech or social interactions. Fears that infants’ immune systems may be overwhelmed by multiple immunizations given at once has led some parents to space them out, though studies show they are safe when given simultaneously. The result is delayed protection and in some cases vulnerability when doses are missed entirely. Communities where anti-vaccine sentiment spreads can lose herd immunity, which occurs when so many people are protected a pathogen can’t take hold and dies out. That protection is essential for those who can’t get vaccinated, such as very young infants and people with certain medical conditions. Herd immunity can even benefit those who got vaccinated, since no immunization is perfectly effective.