By Lindsay Patterson
What happens in the Happiest Place on Earth doesn't always stay at the Happiest Place on Earth. The measles outbreak at Disneyland this past spring infected 147 people in the U.S. and changed the dominant narrative on child vaccination. The celebrity spokespeople have quieted down, and doctors have become more adamant about vaccinating young patients. The panel took a retrospective look at where the media went wrong, and what science writers can learn from the story.
Here are the major lessons of the vaccine "controversy":
- Be cognizant of subtle biases in coverage. Freelance health writer Tara Haelle pointed out news photos that showed children wincing in pain as pediatricians poked them with giant needles. The language that was used to describe non-vaccinators — like "resisters" and "skeptics" — also contributed to a negative perception of vaccines. Even when the narrative flipped after Disneyland, the "vitriol" directed at non-vaccinators betrayed a skewed perspective.
- Professional organizations can be slow to respond to the public need for information. Dr. Ari Brown, a pediatrician and author of the Baby 411 book series, said she decided to become spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics when she felt it hadn't moved fast enough to influence the public debate. She said that the APA is now more proactive in its advocacy.
- Media had a major role in creating the controversy. Both Dr. Brown and Dr. Daniel Salmon, deputy director of the Center for Vaccine Health at Johns Hopkins, implored the crowd to use their platforms wisely. Many vaccine stories perpetuated a false balance and misled the public on the science. Andrew Wakefield's infamous case study, which drew a link between vaccines and autism, should have never been covered. But Wakefield held a press event, so bad science spread.
- Not all anti-vaxxers are the same, and their choice doesn't mean they are bad parents. Dr. Brown noted that parents who do not vaccinate their children believe that the risk of vaccine is greater than the risk of disease. "These are not bad parents, they are scared parents," she said. Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus, first noticed the anti-vaccine movement when his own friends started questioning vaccines. "I was surprised that my friends were making decisions based on intuition," he said.
- Ultimately, controversies are about narratives. Mnookin talked about how he came to understand that it's human nature to create narratives about the world we live in. "One mistake I make is overvaluing recollection," he said. Events that appear to line up to create correlation between a vaccination and symptoms of autism might be completely false. A powerful, emotional narrative can easily overwhelm facts. Picking apart the falsehoods in those narratives is an opportunity to let facts speak again.
- It's challenging not to become an advocate. Mnookin drew applause from the crowd when he stated, "I'm not pro-vaccine. I'm pro-truth."
- This is Oprah's fault. Dr. Brown placed the blame squarely on Oprah for giving Jenny McCarthy a platform to create the anti-vaccination movement. Incidentally, Oprah is also responsible for Dr. Oz, who stacked the deck with an anti-vaccination crowd when Dr. Brown appeared on his show.
