Negative Effects of Vaccinations

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A parent can’t go a week without hearing about vaccinations and the problems they will cause our children. Generally the advertised negative effects of the vaccinations are immediate, whereas others may indicate they cause problems later in life. In the day and age of the internet, what is a person to do? Get informed. Don’t take the information that is presented to you on Facebook, Twitter, email, or through the grapevine as science. Vaccinations have become a very taboo subject for parents today. There is plenty of mis-information out there on the downsides of vaccinations, but none stand up to scientific inspection. Where has the concern about vaccinations come from? When the majority of vaccines were developed they were during a time when the nation or the world was fighting an epidemic. One such epidemic was Polio in the 1940’s and 1950’s in the United States. According to Peter Crosta, Polio is a highly contagious viral infection that can lead to paralysis, breathing problems, or even death. About 95% of all polio cases displayed no outward symptoms, while 4-8% displayed the more severe symptoms. Of these symptomatic polio patients 0.1% to 2% of cases had paralytic polio. If you were a parent in the days of polio what would you have done? Parents were signing their kids up for the trials in hopes of getting first attempt at the real vaccine. Today we don’t typically worry about the diseases we vaccinate to protect against. We have seen a marked reduction in the existence of these diseases in North America. It doesn’t mean that they do not exist however. The true reason for the continued reduction of most of these diseases is often called herd immunity. According to Vaccines.gov, Herd Immunity is “when a critical portion o... ... middle of paper ... ...02/03/health/research/03lancet.html?_r=0>. Price, Cristofer S., William W. Thompson, Barbara Goodson, Eric S. Weintraub, Lisa A. Croen, Virginia L. Hinrichsen, Michael Marcy, Anne Robertson, Eileen Eriksen, Edwin Lewis, Pilar Bernal, David Shay, Robert L. Davis, and Frank DeStefano. "Prenatal and Infant Exposure to Thimerosal From Vaccines and Immunoglobulins and Risk of Autism." AAPublications.org. American Academy of Pediatrics, 9 Jan. 2010. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. . Smith, Michael J., and Charles R. Wood. "On-time Vaccine Receipt in the First Year Does Not Adversely Affect Neuropsychological Outcomes." Pediatrics.aapublications.org. The American Academy of Pediatrics, 5 Feb. 2010. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. .

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