Vaccines have been used to prevent diseases for centuries, and have saved countless lives of children and adults. The smallpox vaccine was invented as early as 1796, and since then the use of vaccines has continued to protect us from countless life threatening diseases such as polio, measles, and pertussis. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2010) assures that vaccines are extensively tested by scientist to make sure they are effective and safe, and must receive the approval of the Food and Drug Administration before being used. “Perhaps the greatest success story in public health is the reduction of infectious diseases due to the use of vaccines” (CDC, 2010). Routine immunization has eliminated smallpox from the globe and led to the near removal of wild polio virus. Vaccines have reduced some preventable infectious diseases to an all-time low, and now few people experience the devastating effects of measles, pertussis, and other illnesses.
Despite all the testing and approval process of vaccines, many people still mistakenly believe that vaccines cause autism, even in light of research that has disproven the notion. This evidences the difficulty of dispelling false statements once someone has accepted a falsehood, especially if it has scientific research backing the results. It also highlights the gullibility of the public at large to believe anything that medical research reports without questioning the findings. Unfortunately, the media attention such examples of junk science receive aids in convincing many of its truthfulness. The hype surrounding the belief that vaccines cause autism began in 1998 when Andrew Wakefield in the UK published an article in the Lancet linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR...
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In the Frontline episode The Vaccine War, a progressively distressful debate ensues among many scientists and doctors within the public health system and an unnerving alliance of parents, politicians, and celebrities. The topic of debate is the overwhelming pressure parents feel to vaccinate their children and their right to decline such vaccinations. In several American neighborhoods, groups of parents have been exercising their right to refuse vaccinations, which has elevated anxiety on the return of vaccine-preventable diseases such as pertussis and measles. The reason such parents are denying their children various vaccines such as the MMR “triple shot” for measles, mumps, and rubella is because they are convinced that it is linked to autism, a link that has yet to be proven. Many of these parents are focused solely on their children, not taking into account that their decision may put the American populace at risk for disease. Such parents are not thinking about other members of society that vaccines don’t work for, and in certain adolescents the effects deteriorate, thus only when every person is immunized the “heard immunity” is successful.
“Immunizing Against Bad Science: The Vaccine Court and the Autism Test Case,” written by Lauren L. Haertlein, deals with one of today’s most popular controversies; vaccinations causing autism in children. Haertlein’s article gives insight into the history of vaccine litigation and the policies that accompany it. Furthermore, she talks immensely about the Vaccine Court, whose job is to work with petitioner’s stating that a vaccine, such as measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), has caused some illness to their child. The article uses real-life Vaccine Court examples such as Michelle Cedillo’s case, whose mother claimed a vaccination gave her daughter autism, as a way to better understand how the Vaccine Court works. This controversial topic is being discussed daily in magazines, journals, and on talk shows. The families that are blaming autism on vaccinations are giving vaccines a bad name and causing other parents to re-think their decision about getting their children vaccinated.
“Vaccinations are causing a major upsurge in childhood diseases, adult maladies, and even deadly ailments such as Gulf War Syndrome and Lou Gehrig’s disease” (Blaylock). Every now and then an individual’s doctor calls telling them about the latest vaccine they should receive. The person immediately schedules a time to come in and get it done. But do they even give a second thought about it? Have they ever thought that maybe they do not need another vaccination? Many people have not taken the time to seriously think about the process of immunization. The truth is, there are many dangers that the average person should be unaware of. Rarely do vaccines actually accomplish what the public has been told. In fact, a lot of vaccines contain harmful substances that have been linked to disorders such as autism. The lack of education and dishonesty from doctors are putting people in danger of health problems without even realizing. Many parents feel obligated for their children to get vaccinated because of school, not knowing they have the alternative option of refusing immunization.
My brother Dan was born November 22, 1999. Daniel was a normal child, he developed at a normal physical and social rate. He was just beginning to talk, gave eye contact, and would use hand gestures (pointing and clapping). When he was almost 2, he when to the doctor's office to receive his MMR (Measles, mumps, and Rubella) shots. He received 9 doses of the shot. After 24 hours of the vaccination, Dan developed an extremely high fever that lasted for two weeks. Once Dan's fever receded, he did not socialize, give eye contact, couldn't be touched, and did not interact with the family anymore. Dan was diagnosed with Autism soon after. Many families report this happening to their child, the reports have grown since the late 90's. I believe that vaccines are the cause of autism and the only way to lower the rate is to give fewer vaccines at a time.
Vaccines have been around for hundreds of years starting in 1796 when Edward Jenner created the first smallpox vaccine. Jenner, an English country doctor noticed cowpox, which were blisters forming on the female cow utters. Jenner then took fluid from the cow blister and scratched it into an eight-year-old boy. A single blister came up were the boy had been scratched but it quickly recovered. After this experiment, Jenner injected the boy with smallpox matter. No disease arose, the vaccine was a success. Doctors all around Europe soon began to proceed in Jenner’s method. Seven different vaccines came from the single experimental smallpox vaccine. Now the questions were on the horizon. Should everyone be getting vaccinations? Where’s the safety limit? How can they be improved? These questions needed answers, and with a couple hundred years later with all the technology, we would have them(ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).
A common myth spread amongst the public is that vaccines cause autism. Despite evidence disproving that, people still oppose vaccine laws because their fear of the government forcing their kids into getting vaccinated by unsafe drugs. ‘Vaccines Cause Autism’ was the headline of many articles when a falsified study was published in 1998 that provided fake evidence for a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. This led to some people opposing SB 277, a bill that requires children to get certain vaccines in order to attend public schools. The idea of a connection between vaccines and autism was so rampantly spread by media news outlets that people remain ignorant and contribute to the perpetuation
Looking at the media and its affect on vaccination the article, “Media Coverage of the Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine and Autism...
Doctor Andrew Wakefield had written a paper in Lancet journal in 1998 which suggested that MMR vaccine causes autism. In his research, he found out that MMR vaccine was responsible for bowel inflammation that leads to the translocation of non-permeable peptides into the bloodstream. (American Academy of Pediatrics) This in turn carries them to the brain causing the root of autism spectrum disorder to form. 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.
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. But, even in these dark times, there is still hope that scientific fact will prevail and defeat the anti-vaccination fear mongers who have caused many children to fall ill and even die because their parents did not properly vaccinate them. This is one of the most saddening scientific failures of the twenty-first century. A failure to educate the public properly has resulted in child, even infant, fatalities. The anti-vaccination movement was started based on falsified data and continues only because of a lack of knowledge and proper education of the general public.
Vaccinations are designed to save lives by providing immunity to certain diseases. These small but complex doses have saved lives all around the world. Vaccination are highly and widely considered one of mankind’s greatest inventions. Due to the fact that the general public's health is directly impacted, vaccines should be mandated. Unlike many medical breakthroughs, the success rate of vaccinations are apparent in the numbers and statistics.
... Tarrant and Thomson (2008), parents readily admitted that they had knowledge discrepancies in regards to childhood vaccines but believed that the benefits of immunization overshadowed any risks that might be present. The biggest source of information for these parents was family members and peers. Along with this information wide-ranging public health programs and mandatory vaccination requirements for school entry made certain that childhood immunization recommendations were followed.
The history of vaccine started with the spread of smallpox disease. Smallpox was a contagious disease and, it was spreading fast leaving permanent scars on patients' faces or worse taking their lives. At the time, there were several attempt to treat and prevent smallpox, but Edward Jenner had the greatest rule in eliminating smallpox.“Jenner's work represented the first scientific attempt to control an infectious disease by the deliberate use of vaccination”. ( “Conclusion” 1,2). Nowadays, Statistics show significant reduction in the cases of infectious diseases after the widespread of vaccination. There were annually 63,000 cases of Pneumococcal among children in the United States. After the beginning of vaccination, the cases redu...
The invention of the vaccine is one of the most essential creations to the human race. Although some people claim that vaccines can do more harm than good ( ¨Vaccines cause autism” is one of the most popular claims), there is no denying the amount of good they have done. Vaccines have saved millions of lives. Since the year 2000, the measles vaccine alone has saved an estimated 20 million lives. Not only do vaccines save lives, but they also improve them.
Nobody knows what measles is (Parker).” In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a group of 315 people were surveyed on their attitudes toward vaccines. After the survey, the subjects were divided into three groups. One group was given the most recent research showing no link between vaccines and autism; another was read a paragraph written in a mother’s voice, describing her child’s contraction of measles, shown three pictures of children with measles, mumps, rubella, and read warnings about the dangers of not vaccinating. The third group, as a control, was given an unrelated science article to read.
Recently the number of parents who are intentionally delaying their children’s general vaccinations is increasing. The controversy that is causing the number of delayed vaccinations to go up is based on the fact that there are negative articles connecting them to autism and other similar diseases. When parents are researching vaccinations and they read those negative articles, those articles make them believe that vaccines cause autism. Vaccines are important because they protect humans from preventable diseases and getting them could save human lives. Vaccines are important throughout life no matter what some research suggests. Parents are now more likely to intentionally delay vaccines because of negative press, even though vaccines