new book by journalist Seth Mnookin Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear , explores the public health crisis on vaccines and autism. The document 1998 The Lancet by British physician Andrew Wakefield that triggered panic has long since been debunked and retracted, and Wakefield was banned from practicing medicine and accused of fraud . But that has not stopped thousands of people to refuse to vaccinate their children for fear that they could become autistic.
Mnookin warns against serious consequences. Recent outbreaks of measles, whooping cough and other preventable infections have sickened thousands of children killed and more than a dozen in the United States. Vaccine rates are falling below the level needed to prevent an epidemic in a growing number of communities, including those with rich, educated populations.
Last week Mnookin spoke with Science Insider know why.
Q: There is a perception that the refusal of the vaccine is particularly common among wealthy, well educated, he is politically liberal parents a truth to that?
MS: It is dangerous to make generalizations about a group, but anecdotal and all data which has been collected, it seems to be people who are actively involved in all possible decisions regarding the life of their children. I think it relates to a desire to take the uncertainty of the equation. And autism is such an unknown. We still do not know what causes it and we still have good answers on how to treat it. So I think that fear really resonates.
Also, I think there is a good amount of law. Not vaccinate your child means that I deserve to rely on herd immunity that exists in a population. At the most basic level, it is said that I believe that vaccines are potentially dangerous, and I want other people to be vaccinated, so I do not have to. And for people to hide under it and say, "Oh, it's just a personal decision," it is dishonest. It is a personal decision of how drunk driving is a personal decision. It has the potential to affect everyone around you.
Q: But why the Liberals
S.M :. I think it taps into the natural organic movement in many ways.
I spoke to a responsible public health and asked what is the best way to anticipate where it could be higher than normal rates of non-compliance of vaccines, and he said take a map and put a pin where there is a Whole Foods. I kind of laugh, and he said.. "No, really, I'm not kidding" These are communities with driving Prius, composting, food organic people eat
Q: in society at large, why it continues to be so afraid of vaccines
MS: I think there are a lot of different answers to that . a very large is that the fears of the impact of non-vaccination have become notional. most people of our generation do not know that people who have had polio or unfamiliar families where a child was blinded by rubella. So when there is no concern at all about vaccines, no matter how unfounded in scientific evidence, it is like you are taking an infinitesimal risk against which almost seems like a risk.
Q: in the book you are taking the media to task for maintaining autism vaccine "controversy" alive. Why
S.M:. If there is a group that deserves the blame for this, it is the press. I understand where the parents come, both parents who believe their children were injured and parents who are worried about what might happen to their children. I do not believe that the medical community and the public health community have treated well, but it was not out of incompetence or irresponsibility. The media has done a horrible job and should have known better.
Q: How
MS: Well, for example, with the initial Lancet Wakefield paper, it should have been clear to any science journalist that there was no way to conclude he did this study. Although its data is reliable, even if none of the problems of selection bias and fraud had never arrive, drawing large conclusions from a case study of 12 people is absolutely absurd. The story in the next day's paper should have been what is thus researcher, making these public health recommendations are irresponsible and have no ground in science. To use the excuse, as the media have, that we are to present both sides of the issue is a total cop-out.
Q: Are there wider lessons here on how misinformation can become so widespread
MS: This there was a University of Michigan study a few years where subjects were given a list of 20 statements about the vaccine against influenza, of which 10 were told [were] true, of which 10 were told were false. Ten minutes later, they could identify was true with a high degree of accuracy, but descended precipitously over time. Thus, the results suggest that simply hear something, even in the context of the hearing is not true, this concept gets into your mental framework in a way that willing to give you that idea more credibility. You can see this with all kinds of urban myths.
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