Vaccine-Autism Myth Returns: Why Personal Bias Drives Dangerous Beliefs

Personal bias, blind belief driving vaccine-autism link, say experts

New Delhi, Oct 29

Recently, a self-published report by the US-based McCullough Foundation claimed that vaccination is “the most significant preventable driver” of autism.

The report, not being peer-reviewed, has garnered significant attention from many anti-vaccine campaigners, including Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu.

“There are many people who take an anti-vaccine stand. We saw the damaging effects of their propaganda during the early part of the pandemic -- when tens of thousands of people died of severe Covid-19 simply because they were afraid to vaccinate,” Dr. Rajeev Jayadevan of the Indian Medical Association, Kochi, told IANS.

“Unfortunately, anti-science views are fashionable in certain circles -- driven by personal bias, blind belief and a fascination with conspiracy theories,” he added.

The report, published on Zenodo and not hosted in any peer-reviewed journal, questioned the increasing immunisation programmes for children -- known to prevent morbidity and mortality.

Dr Shefali Gulati, paediatric neurologist at AIIMS, told IANS that despite clear evidence of the life-saving benefits of childhood vaccinations, vaccine hesitancy remains a critical challenge in the post-Covid-19 era.

In an Editorial published in the journal Autism, Gulati discussed the revival of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles in the US and Europe, following Covid.

“A key driver of this hesitancy is the enduring myth that vaccines cause autism, a theory that has long been debunked but refuses to disappear from public discourse,” Gulati said.

The anti-vaccine movement first began with a fraudulent paper published in The Lancet by Dr Andrew Wakefield in 1998, which falsely claimed a link between vaccines and autism.

“Although the paper was retracted, the damage was already done. Many people continued to believe that vaccines cause autism, despite numerous well-conducted studies showing no such link,” Jayadevan said.

“It is curious that Wakefield is listed among the authors of this new McCullough Foundation report -- which is not a peer-reviewed publication. It is merely a compilation that mixes opinion pieces, weak reports, and genuine studies as though they carry the same scientific weight. That is not a valid research methodology,” he told IANS.

Notably, such misinformation can lead to adverse outcomes where parents refuse to vaccinate their children, resulting in the return of "lethal but vaccine-preventable diseases that had once been conquered".

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), global immunisation efforts have saved around 154 million lives over the past 50 years, the majority of them infants under one year of age.

Gulati urged healthcare professionals to combat vaccine hesitancy with empathy and clear communication, focusing on validating parents’ concerns while addressing misconceptions.

— IANS