This article scared many parents into no longer vaccinating their children, which increased the outbreak of the communicable diseases again such as Measles, Chicken Pox and Pertussis. In 2010, Andrew Wakefield’s research was found to be untrue and therefore retracted from being published. He did his research on Autistic children who’s parents were convinced that it was due to their immunization shots. Much research has been published from 1998-2010 that proves that there is no relationship between Autism and immunizations. Since the kids display the symptoms of Autism around the same time as when they get their immunization shots, they had to do the research on children not getting the vaccines.
Wakefield conducted a study of eight children who had developed autism symptoms from MMR vaccination (Greg Pasco 2011). He supposed that the MMR vaccine leading to the development of autism inflamed the intestinal tracts of the children. In the presentation of the case, Wakefield admitted that he was not very sure that MMR vaccination was solely responsible for autism, but it created awareness that the vaccine could cause autism. His research was based in one of the renowned Royal Free Hospital situated in London. The publication of this paper in the British medical journal caused many parents to cease from taking their children to be vaccinated parti... ... middle of paper ... ... most of the attention from the media and this contributed to the majority of the people easily believing in the publication.
His research was called weak by drug corporations, governments and media companies and was then discredited earning him a fraud reputation. His paper has since raised a decade long argument on MMR vaccine originating autism spectrum disorder. This has caused a lot of parents to withdraw their children from being vaccinated, which increased measles infections. Many studies and research projects have been carried out to find relevance between MMR and Autism. Patients with autism were found to have been harboring an increased number of antibodies to measles when a study was conducted on several patients of Autism.
However, in the United States it is a different version, where parents demand their children not to be vaccinated. Vaccines are readily available to people, yet they refuse for many different reasons. Most of the reasons given for not vaccinating children are because of religious reasons, forgetfulness, moral beliefs, monetary issues and the theory that vaccines cause other health related issues, such as autism. The United States have been privileged with support from the government to vaccinate all people who requested to be vaccinated against preventable diseases. Many people around the world are powerless in getting vaccinated and most die due to lack of healthcare and availability of vaccines.
Wakefield was found doing unnecessary painful procedures on children, and in 2010 was banned from practicing medicine. Unfortunately, this study did a lot more harm than good. This study put a lot of fear in parents and they refused to vaccinate their children because of this. Physicians now warn parent’s that refusing to vaccinate your child is not a risk-free choice and in some cases may even have deadly consequences. Looking at the media and its affect on vaccination the article, “Media Coverage of the Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine and Autism... ... middle of paper ... ...tect their child’s health not, to harm them.
.). Andrew Wakefield's research was the starting point of the conspiracy theory that the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccinations cause Autism. Furthermore, it made people, especially parents of autistic kids, question and lose trust in vaccinations. Without Wakefield's research people, might not question vaccinations as much as they do today. Eventually, Wakefield’s research, in 2004 had problems spring up with it.
In recent years, the correlation between vaccines and autism has become the subject of much debate. On one side, there are the anti-vaccinators, or anti-vaccers. On the other, there’s pretty much everyone else. Despite the fact that the anti-vaccination movement has little base in scientific fact, their campaign to end early infanthood vaccinations rages on. While doctors and scientists try desperately to make parents look at the research studies, vaccination rates continue to fall.
Vaccines have been an issue of controversy for most of this short century. Many people speak out against vaccines without doing the proper research. For the greater good of public health, children and adults should be vaccinated against preventable illnesses regularly. There are many reasons to be vaccinated, that will be explained in further detail below. Many people fear vaccinations because of the inactive cells or viruses contained in vaccinations.
Parents everywhere ponder the question, what causes autism in young children? Since the early 1990s it has been debated whether or not vaccines are to blame for being the causal effect of autism. Numerous studies have been conducted to prove this theory true or false; however, many parents are still fighting the courts that vaccines caused autism in their children. Furthermore, more babies are not getting vaccinated due to the increasing scare being presented on the media about vaccines. The vaccine-autism controversy is the central issue in Jeffrey S. Gerber’s and Paul A. Offits’ article “Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses” as well as in Andy Coghlan’s article “Vaccines May Have Triggered Autism-Like Symptoms, US Court Rules.” Gerber and Offits clearly argue that science proves vaccines are not the link to autism.
In society the controversy over whether we should be vaccinated or not is nothing new. The The fear that vaccines Due to this, 40% of parents in america have chosen to postpone or refuse altogether to get their children vaccinated. The main sources of the controversy over vaccination is the fact that, their is a great deal of misinformation and that the public feels pressured to get their kids vaccinated. This