Quantifying the effect of Wakefield et al. (1998) on skepticism about MMR vaccine safety in the U.S.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Efforts to trace the rise of childhood vaccine safety concerns in the US often suggest Andrew Wakefield and colleagues' retracted 1998 Lancet study (AW98)-which alleged that the MMR vaccine can cause children to develop autism-as a primary cause of US vaccine skepticism. However, a lack of public opinion data on MMR safety collected before/after AW98's publication obscures whether anecdotal accounts are indicative of a potentially-causal effect.

Methods

We address this problem using a regression discontinuity framework to study change in monthly MMR injury claims (N = 74,850; from 1990-2019) from the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) to proxy concern about vaccine safety. Additionally, we suggest a potential mechanism for the effect of AW98 on vaccin

SUBMITTER: Motta M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8376023 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature