Another massive study has discovered no causal connection between the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and autism.
This time, the study’s cohort consisted of every child born in Denmark from 1999 through December 2010 — more than 650,000 children. The conclusion? “The study strongly supports that MMR vaccination does not increase the risk for autism, does not trigger autism in susceptible children, and is not associated with clustering of autism cases after vaccination.”
So the arriving children of an entire country stand witness against a destructive but durable myth. Yet the question remains: Can you kill a myth with a study?
Measles is the purest of test cases. “It is one of the most contagious viruses known to man,” Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health told me. “The measles vaccine is one of the most effective vaccines known to man — 97 percent effective. And, historically, measles is one of the great killers of children. Yet, there is a reluctance on the part of some parents to give the vaccine to their children. This just makes no sense if you just think about it for a second.”
But there is the rub — assuming a second of thought. For some on the left and right, the general revolt against authority has become a revolt against the medical profession. This may be motivated by suspicion of pharmaceutical companies and the business of medicine. Or by a resentment against governmental compulsion. In a recent hearing on vaccines, Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., admitted the medical value of vaccines but added, “I still do not favor giving up on liberty for a false sense of security.”
What Paul — a part-time ophthalmologist but full-time libertarian crank — calls…
