Vaccine Politics: State Laws and the Vaccine Safety Critics

Vaccines have always been controversial, but never more so than in the last 15 years. The late 1990s saw the vaccine-autism scare and the mercury-based preservative, thimerosal, scare—both of which helped vaccine critics portray vaccines as unsafe. While it was a period characterized by low levels of vaccine-preventable diseases, it was also a time of high levels of organized interest-group activity opposing vaccine mandates, much doubt about vaccine safety among parents, and greater use of exemptions to avoid or delay vaccination. Vaccine critics and activists were able to pass legislation in their favor. How are vaccine critics doing now? How has their ability to affect legislation changed over time? A study in The Milbank Quarterly has found that recent events—such as the discrediting of the vaccine-autism link and outbreaks of whooping cough—have slowed the gains made by vaccine critics at the state level.