Are Dr. Wakefield’s Ethics Irrelevant?
When the public got word of Wakefield’s work, worried parents skipped vaccines, and the percentage of children who were not vaccinated in Britain rose from 0.77 percent in 1997 to 2.1 percent in 2000, according to an article by Dr. Michael Smith in the journal Pediatrics. A similar drop-off in vaccinations occurred in the United States, weakening overall immunity and putting those who are too young to get vaccinated at risk for measles, mumps or rubella. Although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control declared the United States cleared of measles in 2000, fewer vaccinations brought back the disease in a 2008 outbreak. At least 131 cases were reported to the CDC, and 11 percent of the cases were hospitalized. A handful of children in Britain died of the measles around the time of the U.S. outbreak. Scientists Investigate Vaccine, Autism Connection Offit said that scientists didn’t sit idly by after the news broke in 1998. “People spent millions and millions of dollar looking at this hypot
