Vaccine Skepticism
From the upcoming Living in the Fact-Free Zone:
The sounds in the room were beginning to fade. Our new TV was on, but it seemed to be in another room. The doctor was talking to my mother. “Gus, a 108-degree temperature is worrisome, even for an eight-year-old child. And nothing is bringing his temperature down.”
“Do you think he’ll be alright?”
“I don’t know. I must admit I’m worried. This is as bad a case of measles as I’ve seen in a while. I’ll check back early tomorrow. The best thing we can do is say a prayer.”
They continued to talk. The voices seemed to be drifting away, even though the two still stood beside the bed.
I felt myself slipping away as everything became eerily quiet. That’s the last that I remember.
I returned from “the dead” two days later, but it took eight weeks of rehabilitation before I could return to school. While there was no measles vaccine at that time, fortunately, the polio vaccine had recently been developed, sparing me that debilitating disease. Initially, the polio vaccine was administered orally, and periodically, our school would line up the students to receive the vaccine on a sugar cube. The images of disabled children, fighting for life in an iron lung to augment their labored breathing, soon faded from our memory.
Polio was very much in the public consciousness in the 1950s. My grandfather was the chairman of the Maryland chapter of the March of Dimes, the organization that raised funds to develop a vaccine for infantile paralysis, now known as polio. He was involved in polio research funding throughout his life, due to his friendship with Franklin D. Roosevelt, who contracted the disease in 1921. I spent many afternoons knocking on doors with my white canister to solicit “dimes” to support that research.
I was also spared the many diseases that beset my parents’ generation. Smallpox, which killed 3 of 10 people contracting it, was virtually eliminated by the 1950s. Vaccines also spared us diphtheria and whooping cough. Whooping cough sounded exciting to a kid; my parents assured me it was not. Today, we’ve almost eliminated measles, mumps, chickenpox, and hepatitis A and B. Pneumococcal bacteria, which cause diseases such as pneumonia, are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. Vaccines are also reducing the incidence of these diseases. These “miracle” drugs have significantly increased our chances of surviving childhood and living a longer life.
Sixty years after I got that first polio vaccine, many now question the safety of getting vaccinated. What used to be a fringe anti-vaccine movement has now reached the heart of our government, as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services in 2025 is significantly cutting funds for vaccine research and suggesting that school systems should no longer require students to be vaccinated. How have we changed so quickly from embracing vaccines to questioning their safety?
In 2024, the World Health Organization calculated that vaccines have saved 154 million lives over the past 50 years, with the majority of these lives being those of children. Vaccines are saving six lives a minute, yet fewer children are being vaccinated now. In the 2024-2025 school year, only 10 states had vaccination rates of 95% or higher, the rate most experts believe is necessary to prevent a disease from spreading. This is down from 20 states meeting that goal in the 2019-2020 period. Why would intelligent individuals, knowing that data, be reluctant to vaccinate?
In 1998, Andrew Wakefield, a British doctor, published a paper in a respected journal, The Lancet, claiming a connection between the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and the increase in autism. He had only examined 12 children, and the scientific community essentially rejected the study. This sparked numerous research studies, none of which found a connection between the two. However, the story had already been disseminated and was in the minds of many before the additional research results were released. Today, despite most people not believing in a direct connection, enough skepticism exists to make some parents reluctant to vaccinate their children.
This is a classic example of confusing correlation and causation. Yes, immunizations and autism have both increased in the last 50 years, but so have computer use, housing costs, the number of women in the workforce, interracial marriage, and the number of children owning Furbies. No one is suggesting any of these are related to increasing autism. The fact that two variables are both increasing does not mean one causes the other.
Wakefield’s study, if not motivated by a darker cause, exhibited many characteristics of poorly conducted science:
1. He used a tiny sample, consisting of only 12 children, and none were randomly selected.
2. There was no control group (non-vaccinated children) in his study.
3. He cherry-picked the data, since he ignored all the children vaccinated with the MMR vaccine who did not become autistic.
4. Many people reacted to what is, in fact, a temporal coincidence. Autism onset usually occurs about the same age as when children are vaccinated.
5. People tend to seek causes and dislike randomness. The increase in autism has concerned all and has not been adequately explained. Vaccinations seemed a logical cause for many.
Several follow-up studies with controls were conducted, refuting any connection between vaccines and autism. Suspicion then turned to thimerosal, the vaccine preservative, as a possible cause. Data showed this did not affect the incidence of autism. Many then suspected that administering multiple vaccines at once might be the problem. Research once again found no connection. In September 2025, President Donald Trump and HHC Chairman, Robert Kennedy, Jr., came up with a new cause for autism ... the over-the-counter medication, Tylenol. Ignoring the fact that most medical authorities do not agree with the claim, the two implied that Tylenol caused autism, when there is only a marginal correlation, and, once again, correlation does not mean causation.
No one is disputing that autism is occurring with greater frequency. This does not make vaccines a more likely factor. Over the years, we have broadened the criteria that qualify a disorder as autism; this, along with a significant increase in the number of screenings, probably accounts for most of the rise. The public is more aware of the disorder’s symptoms, and screenings are often done at a much younger age. We are probably catching cases that would have previously gone uncounted. One variable being investigated, but not yet proven, is the increase in survival rates for preterm babies. These have a higher incidence of developmental disorders, possibly also autism. There may also be environmental (i.e., pesticide) or dietary factors that have not yet been investigated.
Many still question the safety of vaccines, despite the lack of hard scientific evidence linking them to adverse effects. For these individuals, the anecdotal evidence of increased numbers of autism cases keeps them fearful and involved. With vaccines repeatedly proven not to be a factor, there is now little additional research being done exploring a link between vaccines and autism, and many skeptics view this as a scientific cover-up. Many feel that choosing not to vaccinate is a personal decision. Yes, there are rare incidences where a vaccine kills; drinking water could kill if one accidentally inhaled it, but I doubt anyone wants to ban water. Many also forget that as more people fail to vaccinate, the likelihood of a severe disease outbreak greatly increases. There is always a minute risk; nothing is 100% safe. As measles cases increase in this country, sadly, others will experience what sidelined me in the 1950s ... or worse.