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Recent outbreaks in diseases such as measles, mumps and whooping cough have resulted in a backlash against parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated.

(Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press file photo)

New York City is dealing with a rare outbreak of measles. The New York Times reports there are now 20 confirmed cases. Medical workers in the city are coming under scrutiny because they might have failed to quickly recognize the disease and quarantine patients. From the Times:

It's not difficult to understand why many had never seen a case of measles: Time reports the disease was considered wiped out in 2000. But Time reports it has made a comeback, along with other diseases such as mumps, whooping cough and chicken pox. (There is a mumps outbreak at Ohio State University.) Below is a report from the Council on Foreign Relations that includes a map of vaccine-preventable outbreaks worldwide since 2008:

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The outbreaks are cause for concern, and they're also causing a strong pushback against opponents of vaccinating children.

Why would someone be against vaccinating their child against infectious diseases? Some of the reasons cited are because of religious beliefs, fears that vaccines contain chemicals or other poisons, a lack of trust of pharmaceutical companies, and possibly dangerous side-effects.

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But most notorious is the claim that vaccines can cause autism in children. Celebrities such as Jenny McCarthy and, more recently, Kristin Cavallari have been outspoken in their belief of a connection between autism and vaccines. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 88 children have autism.

But the CDC also cites studies showing there is no causal link between autism and vaccines.

This has done little to slow the vocal anti-vaccine movement, which has seen its numbers grow. In Ohio, between 1.1 and 2 percent of kindergartners in Ohio are not vaccinated for nonmedical reasons, according to the CDC. The number of parents in California not vaccinating their children has nearly quadrupled in the past 20 years. That's a danger to the rest of us, says Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times. He cites other recent measles outbreaks in Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles:

Tom McCay of PolicyMic.com is equally harsh in his condemnation of the anti-vaccine movement and its celebrity endorsers:

Of the 11 adults in New York's measles outbreak, only three could prove they had been vaccinated, the New York Times reports, though the others thought they had been. Of the nine children, seven were too young to be vaccinated while the other two were from families that refused to have their kids vaccinated. It is possible for a vaccinated person to get measles later in life, although it is rare, the Times reports.

Blogger Lauren Hartmann, writing on Babble.com, says she doesn't understand why the issue is so controversial:

A noble thought but it probably won't sit well with the pro-vaccination contingent. Mother Jones reports that non-vaccinated children undermine overall health because they threaten "herd immunity": Diseases simply can't spread in a community where a high enough percentage of the population is vaccinated against them. From U.S. News and World Report: