Almost one-third of the citizens of Montenegro believe that vaccines cause autism

PODGORICA, 25 JULY 2021 – Almost one-third of Montenegrin citizens (29%) believe a conspiracy theory that doctors and the government want to vaccinate children, even though they know that vaccines cause autism and other psychological disorders. This was shown by research conducted on a nationally representative sample by Ipsos research agency in March of this year, with the support of the British Embassy in Podgorica and UNICEF.

This conspiracy theory is more often believed by parents who do not trust their child’s doctor and who say that if they had a baby today, they would not want him/her to receive the MMR vaccine.

UNICEF’s young reporter Emir Dresevic checked the accuracy of the statement that the MMR vaccine causes autism in children and concluded that it was incorrect. All those interested in this topic can read his analysis on UNICEF Montenegro's website in Montenegrin, Albanian and English.

Namely, he learned from epidemiologist Senad Begic that this misinformation is a consequence of a paper written by English gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, who examined 12 patients in the 1990s and found that a certain vaccine led to changes in the intestines that resulted in increased intestinal permeability to various harmful ingredients from food and the environment.

It later turned out that Dr Wakefield was motivated by direct financial benefit during his work, and also that he had registered his own vaccine against the same disease targeted by the vaccine he was accusing of being harmful, a few months before the study.

It was later proven that it was a case of “dishonest and irresponsible publication of research”, which resulted in the scientific journal The Lancet publicly withdrawing the article, noting that the data and certain elements of the paper were fabricated and falsified.

Wakefield lost his licence to work in the UK and is still considered a leading ‘fake expert’ who continues to make vast sums of money from media publicity and public appearances unrelated to medicine and science.

Dr Ivan Krgovic, a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry from the Centre for Autism, explained to UNICEF’s young reporter Emir Dresevic that studies had been done on a large number of children who had been followed for several years and no link had been found between the MMR vaccine and autism in children.

A recent public opinion poll conducted by Ipsos in Montenegro has shown that building trust in scientific and healthcare institutions is crucial. Namely, conspiracy theories which state that vaccines cause autism and other psychological disorders are more often believed by citizens who do not trust science, healthcare institutions and the University of Montenegro. Such citizens usually believe in conspiracy theories about coronavirus and report that they themselves would not get vaccinated against coronavirus.

In addition to this, this research indicates the need to strengthen the media literacy of citizens because the conspiracy theory stating that vaccines cause autism and other psychological disorders is more believed by those who have been exposed to a lot of inaccurate information about coronavirus and those who often feel frustrated when trying to find information on this topic.

This research also shows that conspiracy theories are more often believed by people with a hostile attitude towards those who hold different opinions from them.

Namely, the conspiracy theory stating that vaccines cause autism and other psychological disorders is more often believed by people who stopped being friends with people because they had different attitudes, as well as those who like their opinion to differ from others because that makes them feel special.

The importance of stimulating public debate on this topic is indicated by the fact that the number of preschool children who have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the MMR vaccine in Montenegro has reached an all-time low, which creates the conditions for an outbreak of measles during the coronavirus pandemic – something that would be highly detrimental to public health.

The nationally representative sample for this study included 821 respondents aged 18 or over across the country. Data collection was performed in the period from 24 March to 26 March of this year, through a telephone survey, i.e. questionnaires whose average duration was 20 minutes. The key findings of this research are available on UNICEF Montenegro's website.