Vaccination apathy fueled by decades of
misinformation
University of Waterloo
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| Rep. Justin Price (R-Richmond) is the leading voice for false information about vaccination (and many other things) in the General Assembly |
The study, which
appears in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, shows that a
history of drug scandals, medical training practices, and a lack of political
priority placed on disease prevention that started in the 1960s could be
responsible for the immunization apathy, also known as vaccine hesitancy, we're
seeing today.
"It's not all
about the parents, said Heather MacDougall, history professor at Waterloo and
co-author of the study. "History reveals systemic problems including lack
of public education, lack of access, lack of training, and, perhaps most
importantly, lack of political will for a national immunization schedule."
MacDougall and co-author Laurence Monnais of Université de Montréal, trace and analyze the contested adoption of the measles vaccine over three decades up to 1998, just before the infamous Andrew Wakefield publication that falsely linked the MMR vaccination to autism.
Their study shows that
the vaccine hesitancy phenomenon started well before the 1990s and offers
insight on the forces at play behind current instances of vaccine hesitancy.
The historians
documented trends since the 1960s, such as the thalidomide disaster of 1962,
and the emergence of new styles of parenting, second-wave feminism, and the
popularization of alternative medicine.
Measles outbreaks in
the 1970s and 1980s corresponded with a shift to individual rather than
collective responsibility for personal health and health promotion, according
to the study.
By the 1990s, the national and international focus on children's rights and child health made young parents more willing to question whether their child would benefit from vaccination.
By the 1990s, the national and international focus on children's rights and child health made young parents more willing to question whether their child would benefit from vaccination.
"Lack of
sustained training in the rapidly changing science of immunology left Canadian
health care practitioners with limited knowledge to provide guidance when asked
to explain the benefits of vaccination to anxious parents," said
MacDougall.
The division of
federal, provincial, and territorial powers over healthcare have created a
systemic disadvantage for the consensus needed to develop a consistent national
immunization program.
"By publishing
our research, the Canadian Medical Association Journal confirms
the relevance of humanities disciplines such as history to help us understand
social phenomena such as vaccine hesitancy in the face disease outbreaks,"
said MacDougall.