"After the success of the polio vaccine campaign in the 1950s, vaccine researchers developed individual vaccines from 1963-1969 against three viruses-measles, mumps, and rubella-that were associated with birth defects, infertility, deafness, and death. In 1971, a combined vaccine (MMR) was introduced, and vaccine uptake in children increased dramatically. Parents preferred a combination vaccine, because it meant fewer injections and fewer clinic visits, and pediatricians preferred it because it simplified vaccine ordering and storage. Illness from these three viruses fell dramatically."
"As anti-vaccine sentiment rises nationally, prominent people have proposed splitting combination vaccines into individual shots. For example, the new acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently said that manufacturers should separate the combined measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different ("mono-valent") vaccines. While this idea may sound new and aligned with parental choice, it risks undermining childhood immunization rates and increasing preventable illness and death."
Psychological biases, rather than medical science, drive the desire to split combination vaccines. Combined vaccines reduce clinic visits, simplify logistics, and increase uptake. The combined MMR vaccine introduced in 1971 produced dramatic declines in measles, mumps, and rubella. A fraudulent late-1990s study falsely linked MMR to autism and prompted calls to split MMR into separate shots. Separating the safe, proven MMR into mono-valent vaccines would offer no safety benefit, would lower coverage, and would increase preventable illness and death. Pursuing this discredited idea would waste public health resources and undermine trust needed for vaccination programs.
Read at Psychology Today
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