Naturally, Biss felt obligated to look into the link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism, the sticking point for many antivaxxers. The conjecture is based on a 1998 paper in the medical journal the Lancet by a British gastroenterologist named Andrew Wakefield that included a case study of just 12 children and concluded with a note that the study didn’t actually prove there was a link between the vaccine and autism. Six years later, a journalist discovered that a lawyer preparing a lawsuit against a vaccine manufacturer had paid for Wakefield’s research; his license to practice medicine in Britain was suspended in 2010 after an investigation by the British General Medical Council determined that his research had been unethical and irresponsible. The Lancet retracted the paper later that year.
And still, it’s the study people remember, not its afterlife. “All the fears about autism are because we don’t understand how to cure or prevent it,” Biss says. “It’s ripe for fear, anxiety, and irrational decisions. When people say they don’t want vaccinations because of their feelings about pharmaceutical companies and drugs, they don’t realize a drug is different from a vaccine. It’s a different class called biologicals. What vaccines are are living things. It’s beautifully elegant. Part of the beauty is harnessing our own immunity system to protect ourselves.” (Modern vaccines use attenuated viruses, which is why they don’t cause diseases.)
In On Immunity, as she did in Notes From No Man’s Land, Biss argues that most people are self-interested, placing their own needs before the general good, because of their fears. “The more vulnerable we feel,” she writes, “sadly, the more small-minded we become.” Nobody, she points out, is completely isolated from germs or from any other dangers. But are you going to spend the rest of your life avoiding taking your child in the car—or to a public beach?