Lower Rates of Immunization as a Consequence of Antiscience Movement

Influence of anti-scientific views and misinformation is spread through media and social networks. The result is that a lot of parents are scared, misinformed and confused about importance of immunization in early age. From time to time, some media are publishing articles and reports on this issue, consulting the experts in the field, but these examples of good praxis are rare and occasional.

There is no constant presence of science-based information about vaccination in public space, on TV, in the newspapers and news sites on the internet. Also, media, especially online media, often publish badly written or badly translated and interpreted articles that highly contribute to public fear-mongering and affect public understanding of science and trust towards medical institutions, and in this particular case – trust towards vaccines.

It seems that only a small fraction of parents worldwide refuse to vaccinate their children due to some religious views and that parents who refuse vaccines come from very different backgrounds, but further analysis of this problem should be conducted. Also, there is a fraction of people who are not explicitly against vaccines, but they are against mandatory vaccination and/or they question safety and quality of vaccines. It should be noted that those who are against mandatory vaccines also spread misinformation about immunization rates in those countries where vaccination is not mandatory.

Another problem in some countries is increased distrust in public health institutions.

Particular attention should be paid to misinformation and myths spread around MMR vaccine, because immunization with MMR has the lowest rates and parents are very suspicious towards this particular vaccine.

The main reason for this is, of course, Andrew Wakefield’s misconducted study that connected autism and MMR vaccine. This study is rejected by scientific community but, unfortunately, has a huge impact on society worldwide, becoming a seed for modern anti-vaxx movement. Actually, this study tried to connect gastrointestinal problems and autism, not the MMR vaccine itself.  Also, opponents of MMR vaccine misinform parents that measles, mumps and rubella are harmless infections and there is no need to vaccinate your child against these diseases, which is simply not true.

Antivaxx movement and antivaxx atmosphere are just one sign of antiscience society and very basic roots of these phenomena lie in the ignorance of basic science methods, processes and ethics. Public understanding of science, especially natural and applied science is on really low level these days and more attention to public understanding of science should be paid.

Responsible and science-based information on immunization and vaccines are the key-features if we want to achieve higher rates of immunization.