Why 2019 could be the worst year for measles in the United States for decades | Society

IIf current trends continue, 2019 will be the worst year for measles in the United States for decades.

Although the disease was officially declared eliminated in 2000, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that it is now at its highest level. in the USA since 1992. The problem, according to the CDC and the World Health Organization, is "reluctance to vaccinate". But how did the public come to fear vaccination?

The answer began in 1998 when the renowned academic journal The Lancet published a study that reveals a link between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (commonly referred to as MMR). But the authors had only examined 12 children to reach their conclusions. The information it contained was then found to be false, which meant that the paper had been removed in 2010.

But the damage was already done. A significant part of the public came to link vaccines and developmental disorders in children. According to a poll by the Pew Research Center, about one in ten American adults believe that the risks of vaccination outweigh the benefits.

These views are maintained despite the overwhelming evidence that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. This includes:

A 1999 study, also published in The Lancet, studied 498 cases of autism.

A 2001 pediatric study of 262 children.

A 2002 study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, studied 537,303 children.

A 2019 study in Annals Of Internal Medicine, which studied 657,461 children.

This weight of evidence, which totals a sample of 1,195,524 individuals, is presented below. It is inspired by the work of Dr. Charles Li gathering this research.

Now, scroll to zoom out.

Keep on going…

… And go

… And go

… now you have the magnitude of the evidence!

To find out how the lack of vaccination contributed to the measles epidemics, refer to the previous column.

This is a column that illustrates the numbers of the news each week. Do you have any comments or ideas for future columns? Write to me: [email protected]