Kazakhstan experienced an outbreak of measles in late 2023 that infected over 20,000 individuals. Leading public health experts in the country contend that misinformation about vaccinations likely exacerbated the outbreak.

The Astana-based PaperLab Research Center convened an expert panel recently to examine the rise in measles cases and the role played by misinformation in enabling the spread of the disease. The basis for the discussion was a study conducted by PaperLab on immunization practices in Kazakhstan, including the granting of “false,” or unjustified exemptions by medical professionals.

One of the panel’s expert speakers, Manar Smagul, an epidemiologist at the National Center for Public Health in Almaty, noted that a decade ago most individuals cited religious beliefs in seeking vaccination exemptions. Today, a vast majority of those seeking exemptions are doing so for “personal reasons,” Smagul said. Misinformation surrounding the covid pandemic and the supposed dangers of various covid vaccines is a major factor behind the general anti-vaccination trend, experts contend. In 2022, Smagul was a co-author of a study that concluded vaccines provided in Almaty to contain covid registered “high effectiveness.”

The PaperLab study on exemption practices indicated that medical professionals in Kazakhstan were exceedingly lax in granting exemptions from vaccinations. It 2020, the year the covid pandemic hit, health workers granted 200,000 temporary exemptions, along with 2,500 permanent exemptions.

“Health workers tend to overestimate the risks of vaccination, which raises the problem of avoidance [based on] unfounded (false) medical referrals, especially for young children,” according to the PaperLab study, which was published in 2022. “Experts interviewed, based on personal experience, estimated that that 20-50 percent of medical withdrawals may be unfounded.”

The large number of exemptions “highlights gaps in childhood routine vaccinations that are likely to be exacerbated by vaccine communication challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic,” PaperLab added in a statement.