Public sentiment on childhood vaccinations in the United States has changed dramatically
in the last decade. A series of controversial journal articles, including Andrew Wakefield’s
now-retracted paper in The Lancet, suggested that vaccinations such as the measles-mumpsrubella
combined vaccine (MMR) were linked to autism in young children [63, 27]. These
articles were later made famous in the mainstream media by talk-show hosts like Jenny
McCarthy on The View and “mommy bloggers”, parents who blog about their parenting
experiences. The number of anti-vaccination websites skyrocketed in the United States,