A research team of infectious disease experts from MIT and Boston Children's Hospital has released statistical analysis, attributing the measles outbreak that had sparked from Disneyland Anaheim to parents who have declined to vaccinate their children.
The said outbreak spread like a brushfire to seven states and two other countries, according to Los Angeles Times.
In a compelling analysis published on Monday in JEMA Pediatrics, a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association, the team, using a devised formula to calculate vaccination rates, stated that the rate of vaccination among people who were vulnerable due to exposure to the infectious disease during the outbreak was not higher than 86 percent and was, in fact, below the required 96-99 percent that would ensure herd immunity.
While not claiming to be conclusive, the researchers reiterated that there is no better way to explain their mathematical estimates but to claim that a considerable number of parents have failed to have their children fully immunized against measles, mumps and rubella.
"Clearly, MMR vaccination rates in many of the communities that have been affected by this outbreak fall well below the necessary threshold to sustain herd immunity, thus placing the greater population at risk as well," the researchers concluded.
Since the outbreak, the clamor against Anti-Vaccine Movement have prompted discussions across the board and reached national scale that celebrities like Jenny McCarthy, an anti-vaccine activist and has been vehemently voicing out that "vaccine causes autism," and Comedian TV Host Jimmy Kimmel could not help but partake in.
In February, Jimmy Kimmel in one of his segments brave the issue and invited real doctors to address what he thought was an anti-vaccination silliness that was starting to snowball.