Vaccine impact

It looks like the Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who, in 1998, kicked off the scare over the link between the MMR vaccine and autism faked his data. What effect has this had? In England, before the paper, 92% of kids were vaccinated. Now, it's "below 80%."

While 80% sounds pretty good, you need 95% immunization to be reliably free from measles outbreaks. There were 56 cases of measles in England and Wales in 1998, and 1,348 confirmed cases last year, with two deaths. It had been considered on the verge of elimination in 1994.

Germany had 614 cases in 2006, with two deaths. Those two children were ineligible to receive the vaccine for congenital immunulogical reasons. Such children depend on herd immunity for protection from the disease, as do children aged under 12 months, who normally are too young to receive the vaccine.

The US had 131 cases in 15 states (and DC) in the first half of 2008, with over 90% happening to unvaccinated children. That's the highest rate since 1996.