WASHINGTON – While those opposing mandatory vaccination for measles are widely portrayed as ignorant and even dangerous by some officials, pundits and even news media accounts, Centers for Disease Control records reveal a startling truth – while no one has died of measles in the U.S. in the last 12 years, 108 have died as a result of the adverse effects of the vaccine in that same time period.

The death statistics are recorded by Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, which captures only a small percentage of the actual number of deaths and other adverse reactions to the vaccine. In addition, 96 of the 108 deaths in that 12-year time period were a result of the MMR vaccine, now the preferred shot for measles immunization.

In addition, CDC statistic show measles deaths were rare in the U.S. before the vaccine became widely used.

The adverse reactions to the measles vaccines are much more widespread than death, points out Dr. Lee Hieb, an orthopaedic surgeon and past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons who has studied vaccines and written about them in medical journals.

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In a recent commentary in WND, the author "Surviving the Medical Meltdown: Your Guide to Living Through the Disaster of Obamacare," revealed that since 2005 there have been 86 deaths from the MMR vaccine – 68 of them children under the age of 3 years old. In addition, there have been nearly 2,000 disabled, according to the VAERS data.

As a result of her study, Hieb questions the zealous push for mandatory measles vaccination.

"If you believe absolutely in the benefit and protective value of vaccination, why does it matter what others do?" she asks rhetorically. "Or don’t do? If you believe you need vaccination to be healthy and protected, then by all means vaccinate your child and yourself. Why should you even be concerned what your neighbor chooses to do for his child – if vaccination works? The idea of herd immunity is still based on the idea that in individual cases vaccines actually are protective."