In 1998, Andrew Wakefield published a paper, now retracted, in The Lancet confirming a link between the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella combined vaccine (MMR) and autism. Wakefield’s research was found to be fraudulent in numerous ways including information he disclosed to The Lancet, details about the participants in the study, and the funding for this research. Brian Deer, a journalist with publications in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), posted numerous articles exposing the truth behind Andrew Wakefield’s research and findings. In one of Brian Deer’s articles in the BMJ, How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed, he addresses the fact that there were only 12 participants in Wakefield’s study and only one of the participants was a girl. Deer and an article published by the Canadian Medical Association both stated that the participants were selected through children already involved in lawsuits against the MMR vaccine.

The Lancet released a statement from its’ editors that also addresses that the children in the study were specifically invited to the study. These families had already shown interests or had been involved in campaigns against the MMR vaccine. The Lancet editors’ statement includes that evidence found in Wakefield’s study was found to be funded by lawyers and used by these lawyers in cases against MMR vaccine manufacturers. The American Psychiatric Association has addressed in this article that no further studies have found any environmental links to autism let alone any connections of the MMR vaccine to autism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also provides links to 5 other articles that find no correlation between the MMR vaccine and autism in this infographic.

David Elliman and Helen Bedford published an article in the US National Library of Medicine in the Archives of Disease in Childhood about the global responses to the MMR vaccine after Wakefield’s article. This article states that the uptake of the MMR vaccine was at 92% in the UK and the dropped to 79% after Wakefield’s publication. The Medical Journal of Australia published an article that supported this data and also discussed an increase in measles infections in the UK that started in 2002. This article states that the vaccination rates have remained stable in Australia most likely because the UK had more media coverage of the paper and the incident. An article published in Global Pediatric Health Journal discusses the measles outbreak in 2019 in the US, Philippines, Ukraine, Venezuela, Brazil, Italy, France, and Japan. Anti-vaccinations groups still use Wakefield’s paper as evidence and this is influencing measles outbreaks around the world as vaccination rates are lower than in 1998 and declining. This information is extremely important because a disease outbreak is extremely hard to control and these diseases can cause death. Also, falsified research is extremely scary for the public to find because it then reduces the public’s trust of future research. Even after over 20 years since Wakefield’s publication, there are still those who believe his research is true and this impacts global health on a massive scale. There have been so many more research studies that do not find any correlation and Wakefield’s one study has had huge ramifications.

My name is Brooke ReBarker and I am a senior at UNC. I am from Cary, North Carolina and I love to work with kids! I work at the Chapel Hill – Carrboro YMCA three days a week in the Child Watch Center. The YMCA gives me a break from school, homework, and stress and I am able to find enjoyment in the small things with the kids. I hope to get into an Accelerated Nursing Program in the future and eventually become a Neo-natal nurse. I hope that my experiences at the YMCA will help when working with children in my career.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.