As measles cases have surged across the US and Europe this year, there's been a lot of talk about what's causing the outbreaks. Among the most discussed issues: mistrust of the medical establishment, populist politics fueling vaccine doubt, and the spread of misinformation on social media.
Of course, there's more to the story — and a major global survey, published Wednesday by the Wellcome Trust, a UK health research nonprofit, helps shed light on what's going on. Researchers asked 140,000 people ages 15 and older in more than 140 countries about their views on religion, science, and health, including their attitudes toward vaccines.
They found people in higher-income countries were among the least confident in vaccine safety — particularly in North America and Europe. Meanwhile, vaccine trust was highest in countries where preventable diseases still spread, such as Bangladesh and Rwanda. So the further people are from outbreaks, and the more distant the memory of diseases like whooping cough and measles, the more likely they are to shun vaccines.
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