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People's willingness to use a Zika vaccine when it's available will be influenced by how they weigh the risks associated with the disease and the vaccine, but also by their misconceptions about other vaccines, a new study has found.
While a Zika vaccine is in development, the study by researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania examined factors that will affect the eventual acceptance or rejection of such a vaccine.
The study, published in the Journal of Public Health, found that people's erroneous beliefs about an association between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism were a predictor of people's lessened intention to get a Zika vaccine. The study also found that people's perceptions of the severity of the Zika virus as well as their general belief in the power of science to solve problems increased their intention to get the vaccine.
"When a new disease arises, people who lack understanding of the new threat may extrapolate from their knowledge of other diseases," said Yotam Ophir, a Ph.D. candidate at Penn's Annenberg School for Communication who co-authored the study with APPC Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson. "We found that the misbelief about the MMR vaccine's association with autism was more influential on the decision of whether to get vaccinated for Zika than even perceptions of Zika itself, which is worrisome, especially in light of the persistence of that misinformation."
[...] The bogus association between the MMR vaccine and autism has been disproven in numerous studies. However, the argument is still prominent among people who oppose vaccinations. "Scientists often look at the effect of misinformed beliefs about the MMR vaccine on people's intention to vaccinate children with the triple vaccine, but they don't as often look at the dangerous spillover effects that these misbeliefs can have," said Ophir, who will be joining APPC as a postdoctoral fellow.
He said that prior research has shown that it is very hard to completely debunk misinformation, such as the mistaken belief that the MMR vaccine causes autism, but the study results suggest that accurately communicating about the risks of Zika can help lessen the detrimental effects of the misbelief. "Even if we can't change what people think about the MMR vaccine, if we can give them an accurate picture of how vulnerable they are to a disease such as Zika, they can make a more informed decision about it," Ophir said.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Magic Oddball on Monday March 19 2018, @02:44AM (5 children)
When? The original belief back in the 1970s was because vaccines were first given at or right before the point when it starts becoming clear that the child isn't developing typically, and the physical/emotional stress magnifies the perceptible differences as well as any sensory issues.
The thimerosal/mercury theory was never accurate in part because it's unable to pass the blood-brain barrier. People who have brain damage or mercury toxicity can have traits that appear similar to the autism stereotype, but it's only on the surface.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by julian on Monday March 19 2018, @03:05AM (2 children)
Not to mention that the mercury issue is wildly incompatible with our understanding of how the element behaves biologically. A small, one-time dose of a biologically unavailable form of mercury is not going to cause problems in the vast majority of people. Mercury is a naturally occurring element that has been present in the environment since life first emerged from non-living precursors. Contemporary species, including humans, can easily deal with levels typical for our environment. A year's worth of tuna sandwiches doses you with more mercury than you'll experience from a lifetime of vaccines--but no one claims tuna salad causes autism.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 19 2018, @03:27AM
Pretty sure injecting a years worth of tuna salad into a vein at once is going to cause some problems. Im only half kidding, your argument ignoring dose schedule and route of administration is worse than nothing.
Just talking about mercury toxicity isnt enough. Its how much entering the body in what way with what timecourse Due to the rudimentary state of medical knowledge it is dangerous to extrapolate beyond whatever precise conditions have been tested. You probably also need to take into account age, weight, diet, etc. The theory to do otherwise just isnt there.
(Score: 1) by cocaine overdose on Monday March 19 2018, @03:53AM
I must also chastise you for being an armchair scientist. The arguments are as lazy as the ones anti-vaxxers bring.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by cocaine overdose on Monday March 19 2018, @03:43AM
[PMID: 24354891] TL;DR - Brain encephalopathy caused by mercury intoxication. The limitation here, is that it's only a statistical analysis of data, instead of a full fledged study. There was a great meta-analysis I came across a while ago, when I was discussing this topic, that really wrapped things up nicely. I can no longer find it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 20 2018, @06:57PM
It's not just about the mercury. Vaccines, in their current schedule, administration methods, manufacturing methods, regulation, liability, etc. are completely untrustworthy. It's clear that vaccines are severely damaging people's babies in various ways. It's not just brain damage. Instead of trying to cover for the drug dealers (and possibly worse motives) we could demand they be made much safer, instead of trying to find reasons why "anti-vaxxers" are stupid luddites. Propagandists like this whore of big pharma, APPC Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson, should be terminated in a demonstrative fashion. This is what happens when you cover for people trying to disable babies.