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How Divergent Risk-Characters Rewrite The Anti-Vaccination Narrative, Shelby C. Luttman

Masters Theses

The modern narrative originates in 1998, when a paper by a British medical journal The Lancet alleged that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine may cause autism and bowel disease (Wakefield, Murch, Linnell, & Casson, 1998). The funding of the publication was deemed erroneous, yet the research sparked a connection between vaccines and disorders that would soon undermine public confidence in vaccines. Still today, the debate on vaccines poses a threat to public health in the United States of America as “opt-out” rates, particularly in states with recent outbreaks are increasing (Ratzan, 2011).

This study sought to examine what factors contribute to divergent …