Over 70 people die in outbreak blamed by officials on scandal that eroded public confidence in immunisation programmes. In 1993, Merck KGaA became the only company willing to sell MMR vaccines in the United States and the United Kingdom. [49], During the 1980s and 1990s, a number of lawsuits were brought against manufacturers of vaccines, alleging the vaccines had caused physical and mental disorders in children. These anti-vaxxers took to social media, mobilised celebrities, stoked suspicion about experts, and played on concerns about state intrusions into our personal lives. More facts, better education and less fake news are a start. Francisco Duque III, the health secretary, has blamed the falling vaccination rates on a scare he says was caused by the Public Attorney’s Office, particularly its chief lawyer, Persida Acosta, who is leading an investigation into a public vaccination campaign against dengue fever in 2016 and 2017. And so the people who go and engage in those anti-vaccine efforts—you know, they, they kill children. Opposition figures allied with former President Aquino criticised Acosta and accused her of using the Dengvaxia cases to discredit the political opponents of Duterte, whose 2016 election campaign capitalised on the public’s disillusionment with Aquino’s administration. [51], The MMR scare caused a low percentage of mumps vaccination (less than 30%), which resulted in outbreaks in Japan. [64] A 2009 review of studies on links between vaccines and autism discussed the MMR vaccine controversy as one of three main hypotheses that epidemiological and biological studies failed to support. [70], The number of reported cases of autism increased dramatically in the 1990s and early 2000s. A 2002–2003 outbreak of measles in Italy, "which led to the hospitalizations of more than 5,000 people, had a combined estimated cost between 17.6 million euros and 22.0 million euros". [62] The judge stressed that his ruling did not amount to a rejection of any of the claims that MMR had seriously damaged the children concerned. [55], Autism rates continued to rise in Japan after the discontinuation of the MMR vaccine, which disproves any large-scale effect of vaccination,[56] and means that the withdrawal of MMR in other countries is unlikely to cause a reduction in autism cases. “She stood at the gravesides of poor dead children to wage a vicious campaign of disinformation, pseudo-science and politically-motivated witch-hunts,” Hontiveros said. [14] Physicians, medical journals, and editors[15][16][17][18][19] have described Wakefield's actions as fraudulent and tied them to epidemics and deaths.[20][21]. A 2004 outbreak of measles from "an unvaccinated student return[ing] from India in 2004 to Iowa was $142,452". [50] On 13 February 2015, the decision was overturned by a Court of Appeals in Bologna. Banning “fake news” about vaccinations also seems to work. [1] The link was first suggested in the early 1990s and came to public notice largely as a result of the 1998 Lancet MMR autism fraud, characterised as "perhaps the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years". The upshot is half a million children in the UK missed their measles vaccination between 2010 and 2017, and in 2018 there were a record number of deaths from measles. [27][28] The scientific consensus is that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism and that the vaccine's benefits greatly outweigh its potential risks. By the 1990s there were only thousands of cases of measles each year, and very few deaths. In 2008 Europe also faced a measles epidemic, including large outbreaks in Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. [4], The claims in the paper were widely reported,[5] leading to a sharp drop in vaccination rates in the UK and Ireland. [72] Also in 2004, a review article was published that concluded, "The evidence now is convincing that the measles–mumps–rubella vaccine does not cause autism or any particular subtypes of autistic spectrum disorder. Luckily, there are other ways, I understand the fears. Only 87.2% of five-year-olds had received both MMR vaccines. Researchers who have looked inside the anti-vaxxer echo chamber have found high levels of distrust towards the government and medical industry, a shared sense of paranoia and conspiracy, and common stories about big government and big business versus individual faith and belief. Bill Gates has reacted strongly to Wakefield and the work of anti-vaccination groups: Dr. [Andrew] Wakefield has been shown to have used absolutely fraudulent data.