This is a story about the pernicious claims borne out of a single, discredited scientific paper in 1998. But it’s also a story of how this belief has persisted among a growing number of Americans, despite its scientific foundations crumbling in the years following its origin.
We’ll tell these two stories in parallel.
To chronicle the scientific merit of this idea, we’ll refer to a number of studies, as well as to investigative journalism pieces focused on the credibility of its most vocal proponent: Andrew Wakefield.
To chronicle the belief in the autism-vaccine link I’ll use the New York Times archive to show the articles that mention a link between both these terms. We use these articles not to cast aspersions on the Times, but to demonstrate the fact that these beliefs have grown sufficiently popular for the paper of record to mention them with increased frequency.
Science etc. is a series of shorter visual stories exploring the unexpected aspects of scientific research and their implications.
Some 30 studies have found no relationship between autism and the MMR vaccine; the original study, its data misrepresented, has been retracted, and its lead researcher is now barred from practicing medicine in the UK. And yet, the myth persists, with measles cases breaking out in wealthy nations like the US and UK.
In rare cases, adverse effects may occur, but their likelihood, and severity, pale in comparison to the consequences of highly contagious diseases like measles.
Is there a fix? Abolishing the voluntary exemption to vaccinations, as several states have, is one. The others are simple: vaccinate your kids, and tell your friends the most harmful characteristic of the MMR vaccine is its false link to autism.
Method: To ensure that an exceedingly high quality of research was included in this timeline, I’ve chosen to include only studies deemed as such by the Cochrane Collaboration (that is to say, the number of studies finding no link between the MMR vaccine and autism is much, much higher — the American Association of Pediatrics, for example, has created their own list of creditable research, which twice as many sources). I’ve also included all New York Times articles available in the archive which the API returned upon querying “vaccines autism.”
I’m very grateful to Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, for his insights into the history of the anti-vaccination movement. I’d also like to thank Carlo Di Pietrantonj, who kindly answered my questions regarding the upcoming 2019 update to the Cochrane Collaboration’s review of the links between the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine with autism. Big ups to Jan Diehm for additional design and development.