A minority of parents believe that the most life-saving medical advance in history does

more harm than good.

This group has undermined progress against disease in Europe and the U.S., and health

officials worry about further setbacks, considering who has endorsed the discredited link between

vaccines and autism.

Two years, two years old.

a child, a beautiful child went to have the vaccine and came back and a week later got

very very sick and now is autistic.

Here's the situation…

The vaccine backlash took off in 1998 when the medical journal the Lancet published what

turned out to be a fraudulent study linking the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine to

autism.

The journal retracted the study in 2010, and UK authorities stripped its author, Andrew

Wakefield, of his medical license.

Preventable diseases are on the rise again in the U.S. and Europe.

The U.S. was measles-free in 2000.

The number of cases spiked to 667 in 2014 though.

It's worse in Europe, where there were 4,000 measles cases in 2016.

Whooping cough has remained at elevated levels in both places since 2012, when it killed

20 people in the U.S. and 10 in the U.K.

The choice not to vaccinate doesn't just affect individual children.

Since unvaccinated kids often live in geographic clusters, groups can lose herd immunity.

That's when a community that is so protected against a particular pathogen that the pathogen

itself dies out in that area.

If communities lose herd immunity, those who can't be vaccinated either for medical reasons

or because they are too young become susceptible to infection.

So do those who are immunized, because no vaccine is 100% effective.

Now here's the argument…

In the U.S., states set vaccine requirements for school attendance.

Many states offer exemptions for parents who cite religious or personal beliefs that their

children should not be vaccinated.

Some public health specialists support eliminating these waivers, and in some cases courts have

agreed.

In striking down a religious exemption, Mississippi's Supreme Court cited an “overriding and compelling

public interest” in keeping children healthy.

Others worry that making vaccinations more compulsory for school attendance would just

harden the opposition.