Nearly Half of Americans Still Suspect Vaccine-Autism Link

THURSDAY, Jan. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Just a slim majority of Americans -- 52 percent -- think vaccines don't cause autism, a new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll found.

Conversely, 18 percent are convinced that vaccines, like the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, can cause the disorder, and another 30 percent aren't sure.

The poll was conducted last week, following news reports that said the lead researcher of a controversial 1998 study linking autism to the MMR vaccine had used fraudulent research to come to his conclusion.

The poll also found that parents who have lingering doubts about the vaccine were less likely to say that their children were fully vaccinated (86 percent), compared to 98 percent of parents who believe in the safety of vaccines.

Still, the percentage of fully vaccinated children remains high, at 92 percent, the poll found.

"This sounds like a cup half-empty/cup half-full story," said Humphrey Taylor, chairman of The Harris Poll. He noted that while the number of people who believe in a connection between vaccines and autism is "only 18 percent," that nonetheless translates to "millions and millions and millions of people, and it's clear that in some cases that has led them to not vaccinate their children."

Vaccine safety has been a major concern for many parents since the publication of the 1998 study, led by now disgraced British doctor Andrew Wakefield, which concluded that the MMR vaccine caused autism. The journal that originally published the study, The Lancet, has since retracted the paper and Wakefield was recently barred from practicing medicine in Britain.

In recent weeks, another leading British medical journal, BMJ, has published a series of articles purporting to expose deliberate fraud by Wakefield in his handling of the research that served as the basis for the 1998 study.

In the new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll, 69 percent of respondents said they had heard about the theory that some vaccinations can cause autism.

But only half (47 percent) knew that the original Lancet study by Wakefield and other researchers had been retracted, and that some of that research is now alleged to be fraudulent.

"Forty-seven percent is a huge number and this is a relatively new thing [allegations of fraud], so it's remarkable that they have heard of it. But that still means that half the population has not," Taylor said.

Still, the retraction and allegations of fraud do seem to have influenced public perception. Among those who had been following the news about Wakefield, only 35 percent believed the vaccine-autism theory, compared to 65 percent who had not kept up to date on the latest developments.

"There seems to be reasonable support for vaccination and I think this will increase with the revelation that a lot of this stuff was based on fraud or bad science," said Dr. Kenneth Bromberg, chairman of pediatrics and director of the Vaccine Research Center at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York City.

Overall, 69 percent of adults polled agreed that schools should require vaccinations -- including, interestingly, 52 percent of those who believe that autism might be connected to vaccinations.

Sixteen percent of all adults surveyed said they knew of at least one family whose children had not received all recommended vaccines due to concerns about autism. One-quarter of those who believed the vaccine-autism theory said they knew at least one family that had not fully vaccinated their children.

Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, which supports more research into the safety of vaccinations, said autism is just one concern linked to vaccines.

"Parents have legitimate questions about vaccine risks and want better vaccine science to define those risks for their own child," she said. "This concern long predated the debate about vaccines and autism. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 was passed by Congress, in part, to address those concerns but has not done the job.

"The Harris poll points out the urgent need for a renewed effort to conduct new vaccine safety studies that are methodologically sound and free from real or perceived conflicts of interest," Fisher added, "or a significant portion of the public will continue to question the conclusions."

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated one in 110 children in the United States has an autism spectrum disorder, part of a group of developmental disabilities that can cause significant social, communication and behavioral challenges.

The Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll was conducted online within the United States from Jan. 11-13, and included 2,026 adults over the age of 18. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.

 

And that's a spambot.

I can see where the American public is coming from in this situation. It's not a matter of deliberate stupidity so much as it's a matter of ignorance. The 18% haven't been adequately informed that the study was retracted. Also, even if they were aware, many people hold a view that they'd rather not 'take the risk'. After all, in their minds, once doubt has been raised, it's impossible to successfully retract.

 

isn't that part of America's problem they give in to speculations way too easly.... no offence to any Americans here lol. But it's like the thing of over half of Americans don't know Elvis is dead or belive he is special and can't die in some way.... Just because some die-hard fan said it once now a large proportion of America belives it....

 

I don't think it's fair to purely blame the people. The real villain at fault here is the media, which broadcasts sensations, such as vaccinations causing autism, as opposed to tamer ideas, such as there really being no link and everything is fine. Bad news sells, after all.

 

I guess your right but thats the same in every countory really. we have that type of news in britan but we don't always belive in it but then again there are some who do

 

Yeah, the media does it everywhere. I'm hoping though that it's particularly bad in America, because the implications otherwise are rather unfortunate for Americans.

 

When you look at it,its kinda people just being scared and trying to blame those things that make them scared on others.
And yes,it is almost more hyped up because its America we`re talking about :D

 

Never heard of this connection in the first place, but it is interesting to note. And I agree with P, if the news ever brings up scientific studies it usually talks about some negative of doing this or that which causes the public to become vulnerable to such ideas. Worst of all is the lack of re-education. The media won't say that their story was wrong openly, helping ot inform people about why they sohuldn't be worried, and instead move on to the next big thing.

 

I don't believe Autism is linked to any Vaccine what so were, they could cause autism like symptoms but, but not really cause it. The way I see it, if look at the people who have said to have had Autism before vaccines, they it's most likely not true.

 

This isn't 1994. Autism is a neurological disorder meaning you're born with it. Considering that, how could it be caused by a vaccine?

 

People still spread on this misunderstanding when the scientific proof says otherwise...

Infact I think it can be blamed down to one specific female reporter (her name escapes me, it was said in an article I read once) who spread this unproven gossip-esque fact like wildfire and has possibly indirectly killed countless children because some parents feared vaccination. (Personally speaking, I hate the media for spreading it so much)

I don't want to generalize a country, but America can easily misunderstand things and not know the facts have disproven this to be no more than a wives tale. I think with this in case you have to look at the scientific facts and their is no perfect correlation between autism and vaccination.

Ok, reported signs of autism have raised indeed however, the reason for the numbers being raised will more likely be down to the fact of people understanding the illness more than say locking their child in a room just thinking they're crazy and keeping them a secret (as in the past people will have kept children with these illnesses a secret as it was socially misunderstood). Autism is slightly better accepted and acknowledged in the modern world but it's still very misunderstood like many other mental illnesses. (I think it's a mental illness, if I'm incorrect forgive me)

My mother believed in it with the MMR vaccine after I had my primary injections and refused to let me have a second dosage when I got older. She likely has no clue that the connections have been disproven and it was a load of poppycock and she's british (so it's likely misunderstood across the more developed world), many older people who don't research into it or read more intellectual articles will have trouble finding out the reality because as far as news reports go, a scandal fright makes headlines and refusing it's truth saying things are ok is a bore and not good enough for news.

It needs to be educated to people though, the correlation is false and was a major misunderstanding that blew out of proportion.

 

Parents are saying their children were normal until they got the shots. They believe the combination of many different shots at such a young age changed their child and gave them the disorder.
But People always look for a source to a problem and sometimes they point the finger at the wrong thing.
I doubt there is an connection, but it will take awhile for people to figure out the truth. The fact so many still believe this is the truth, is because the media covered it unfairly. The spent so much time building hype to the situation and very little talking about how poorly Andrew Wakefield (The British doctor who started this discussion) performed an experiment on the connection. He only studied 12 children, which is not enough to clearly say a connection exists.