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In 1998, British doctor Andrew Wakefield published a study in the British medical journal The Lancet that linked the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism. Wakefield’s finding accelerated the growth of the anti-vaccine movement, which denies that vaccines are medically beneficial and claims that they only bolster big pharmaceutical companies. Despite the discrediting of Wakefield’s findings in 2010, suspicions of the MMR vaccine have taken on a life of their own and certain pockets of the United States have large groups of families who have chosen not to vaccinate their children. As a result, measles, which health authorities claimed had been eradicated in the United States in 2000, is making a comeback. In January, an unvaccinated woman at Disneyland in California caused measles to spread to more than one hundred people, and fears of widespread disease outbreaks due to people not being vaccinated has caused a political firestorm. As a result, extempers should be prepared to talk about the vaccination issue in future rounds.
This topic brief will provide some historical background of the MMR vaccination debate, discuss the political dimension of the issue, and breakdown possible policies that could be implemented to reduce the number of Americans that are not vaccinating their children.
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