Medical community 'pretty united' against recent GOP anti-vaccine claims, Duke experts say

The national spotlight has again fallen on the anti-vaccine movement after dubious claims from Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Rand Paul during the second GOP debate.

The scientific and medical communities agree, however, that vaccines do not cause autism and are effective tools for public health, said Jeffrey Baker, a pediatrician and director of Duke’s History of Medicine program. Despite the scientific consensus that vaccines do not cause autism, doubts of vaccine safety and even refusal to vaccinate children persist among parents today, resulting in outbreaks of diseases that had been virtually eradicated by vaccines before.

“Physicians by and large regard vaccines as safer as they’ve ever been,” Baker explained. “The medical community is pretty united on this.”

According to Baker, fear of vaccines among parents and anti-vaccine advocacy groups are still perpetuated for a number of reasons.

Many point to a dramatic increase in the number of autism cases which began in the 1990s and continues today. Baker attributed part of this rise to better identification of autism spectrum disorder cases as well as extensions of what is diagnosed as autism.

Some claim that outside factors like vaccines are responsible, but Baker said vaccines can be ruled out.

“An environmental factor is definitely possible, but I think we can be very sure that if there is an environmental factor out there, it’s not vaccines, because vaccines are one of the only ones that have been studied very well,” he said.

Suspicion of government and medical experts further propel many parents’ distrust. Baker said the Internet enables people to easily find validation for their fears, which are then sometimes compounded by statements from politicians.

The consequences of the anti-vaccine movement are beginning to show in resurgences of diseases like whooping cough and measles which had previously been eliminated or controlled within the U.S. by vaccines.

In 2014, the Centers for Disease Control reported 668 measles cases occurring in the U.S., a record high since the disease was declared eliminated from the country in 2000. So far this year, 189 cases have been documented after a large measles outbreak originating in Disneyland infected 125 people. The disease’s subsequent spread to multiple U.S. states fueled a national debate on whether the fear of vaccines was responsible or well-founded.

In June—after the outbreak had ended—California passed a new law eliminating the religious and personal belief exemptions that had previously allowed parents to opt out of vaccinating their kids. The law requires all children entering school to have specific vaccinations or be homeschooled unless they have a medical exemption.

“Once a parent decides to put a child in a community setting like a school, it’s reasonable for the community to say there are limits on your individual autonomy,” Baker said. “It’s part of your responsibility to vaccinate your child, to protect the other children.”

In order to eliminate a disease, roughly 90 percent of a population has to be vaccinated, Baker noted.

In North Carolina, children are required to receive a certain set of vaccinations unless they have a medical exemption or religious objection. Duke Student Health has the same immunization policy and the same allowance for religious exemption.

“[Students] have to sign and write a statement expressing their personal religious beliefs, and they can’t just say they’re against [vaccinations,] they have to actually give examples of scripture teaching that describes why they cannot,” explained Jean Hanson, administrative director of clinical services and outreach for Duke Student Health.

She also estimated that four or five undergraduate and graduate students use the religious exemption every year.

Baker said one aspect of the solution lies in improved communication between parents and their doctors. Many of the parents he has worked with as a pediatrician are not adamantly against vaccinating their child, but rather nervous and unsure, he explained.

“I think it’s important to talk to parents, to have meaningful conversations—we can do better as physicians,” Baker said. “Parents deserve better explanations than simply, ‘this is what experts recommend.’ As doctors we have a lot of responsibility to explain the benefits.”