Childhood Vaccinations And The Dangers

Although the negative claims behind anti-immunization stances are deceptive and discredited, some parents find it difficult to accept that vaccines are necessary and safe. Many of these reasons are due to personal or religious beliefs that have persuaded parents to bypass immunizations for their children. Consequently, health officials are seeing disquieting rises of diseases that are easily preventable. The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) has reported hundreds of measles cases in the United States in 2011, the largest number in 15 years (Ben-Joseph, Elana). Essentially, almost all of these cases were in individuals who had not received a vaccine shot. Also found in the article was that a great amount of the quarrel over the shots comes from a 1998 study that tried to connect autism to a type of vaccine that defends against measles. However, there has been no scientific evidence that a vaccine or a combination of any of the shots induces autism. Undoubtedly, the doctor that wrote the article, calling vaccines a “deliberate fraud” ,lost his license for not submitting any evidence of his claim and causing people to neglect shots for that year. Sadly, due to that article, 1 in 4 parents still believe that vaccines are

In order to investigate more about Wakefield’s study, Brian Deer, a journalist of British Medical Journal, carefully talked to the parents of all children who were participated in the study. Interestingly enough, he revealed the fraud behind Wakefield’s research. The Lancet, the journal that reported Wakefield’s study, retracted the paper soon afterwards (Deer). However, the real trouble still exists. Though it has been proved by many researchers that the MRR doesn’t cause autism, many people perceive the vaccine as a threat. Dr.Nemeroff once said “it is quite difficult to get the cognitive sewage out of the water even after the real sewage is gone” (Greene).

There is much debate and controversy about child vaccinations being safe or not. Parents wonder should they get

Many infectious diseases that once quickly spread and easily killed have been controlled or eradicated due to vaccinations. The efficacy of vaccines in reducing morbidity and mortality, particularly in children, is undeniable. Per the World Health Organization, childhood vaccinations prevent approximately 2-3 million deaths per year worldwide (WHO, 2016). In the United States, the value of immunizations is clearly displayed by comparing pre-vaccine era morbidity/mortality rates to post-vaccine era in regards to vaccine-preventable diseases. For example, prior to the diphtheria vaccine in the 1920’s, 206,000 people annually contracted the disease resulting in 15,520 deaths (History of Vaccines, 2009). However, between 2004 and 2014, only

Hendrix, Kristin S., et al. "Ethics and Childhood Vaccination Policy in the United States." American Journal of Public Health, vol. 106, no. 2, Feb. 2016, pp. 273-278. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302952.

One such factor helping to manifest these large-scale epidemics is a study from 1998 by Andrew Wakefield, which claimed that there was a direct link between autism and the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine (Smith 1). As a result, many parents refused to vaccinate their children out of fear, and vaccine-preventable diseases like measles began reappearing more in both America and Britain, the place where Wakefield conducted his study (Cohen 2). Although a later investigation by the British Medical Journal discovered that Wakefield had distorted or altered the medical records of all twelve of the study’s participants and that he had been paid $674,000 USD by lawyers attempting to sue vaccine manufacturers, the atmosphere of apprehension surrounding vaccines is still strong among many individuals, and especially parents (Cohen 1-2). But despite all the controversy and the scientifically unsupported arguments of anti-vaccine sympathizers,

As humans we have a tendency to make decisions before completely rationalizing them thoroughly. Through science we now know that our frontal lobe, which is responsible for motor function, problem solving, memory, judgment, impulse control and much more does not fully mature until our late twenties. The average age to start having children is in our early twenties, (25 years of age or younger) not to mention the teen parents. Throughout childbirth, one question that needs proper judgment and consideration to make is, whether to have their children vaccinated. One barrier that can affect parent when making solid decisions about childhood vaccinations is the scientific terminology doctor and other people use. For example, when comparing the word vaccination to immunization sometimes people will use the terms interchangeably not realizing that they have two distant meanings. Vaccination is just that, a vaccine that that is administered to develop immunity, or immunization, to a specific disease. Childhood vaccinations are a crucial part to the development of children and their health, despite the barriers that are present. By introducing research to the community regarding possible risk factor, myths that are commonly associated with childhood vaccinations, and possible laws, the goal is to help people understand why all children should be vaccinated.

The current issue I have selected to discuss is vaccinations. In particular, I will be addressing the anti-vaccination movement that has gained popularity in recent years and the contributing biases that influenced its emergence. One event stands out at as a major contributing factor to the growth of the anti-vaccination movement, the 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield that was published by the English medical journal, Lancet. This study claimed to show a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. Even though it was just one small study, the media picked it up and it became hugely publicized.

Now, as stated above, misinformation fuels the anti-vaccination movement. The largest source of said misinformation is the abundance of zany conspiracy theories that pervade the Internet. Although there are many stories vaccination opponents cling to, the primary source of modern falsehoods is a fraudulent article published in 1998 by Dr. Andrew Wakefield in The Lancet, a renowned peer-reviewed medical journal. In his article, Wakefield described how his research showed a correlation between the onset of autism symptoms in children and the injection of the mumps, measles, and rubella vaccine. However, as Wakefield was found to have a slew of undeclared conflicts of interest and heavily manipulated results, The Lancet fully retracted his article in 2010, and his medical license was revoked (Douglas et al, 2014). At this point, however, the damage had already been done. The media carelessly circulated stories about Wakefield’s now-discredited article using sensationalist, fear-mongering headlines. The remnants of this massive reporting blunder now float in cyberspace like asteroids, colliding with parents worried about the safety of their children. These “asteroids” often convince naïve parents that childhood vaccinations are dangerous by implementing vicious scare tactics. Needless to say, nobody

There are diseases such as autism that is frequently linked with vaccinations. This has been a recent topic in the news and has cause quite the uproar. In a recent program on PBS, the topic of vaccinations and their actual relation to autism is discussed. The program initially focuses on “our faulty risk perceptions around vaccines, how many people are vastly more scared than they ought to be of a tiny risk (vaccination) while ignoring a huge one, the return of deadly diseases” (Mooney). The program shows a “tough scene of a tiny infant suffering from whooping cough, its mother weeping, nurses running in constantly to sit the baby up (he cannot even raise himself) so that he does not choke” (Mooney). The episode then takes a turn to focus on an autistic 16-year-old living in the United States. Her condition was initially, said to be caused from the MMR vaccination she received at birth. The mother of the girl says how “the studies that were originally thought to link the MMR vaccination to autism were proven false” (Mooney). This documentary lays out the “overwhelming science demonstrating the safety of vaccines and also shows you how the immune system

For a child to start public school, he/she needed a dental check-up, a physical and, most importantly, vaccinations. Although the decision of having a child inoculated is easy for some, it may be more difficult for others. Having children receive vaccinations can erase disease, save lives, and protect.

In 1998 a study was published by Andrew Wakefield theorizing that there was a link between autism symptoms and receiving a MMR vaccination. However, his findings are to be inconclusive considering he did not take the proper procedures to conduct a controlled study. First, he did not include control subjects in his study, so the results cannot be compared properly if there were any changes in the subjects. Second, the endoscopic or neuropsychological assessments were not done blind and the data was not collected systematically or completely. Third, the symptoms found between the children with autism and gastrointestinal problems were inconsistent. In reality, many health groups are theorizing that a vaccination does not cause autism by any

Wakefield carelessly carried out aggressive test on the children under his care and had no concern for the children or how they would be affected. His study also spread panic and insecurity about the vaccine along with causing parents of children with autism to feel guiltiness and blamed their selves for their kids’ illness. Wakefield’s unethical researcher has affected people all around the world. Britain vaccination rates, along with United States, plummeted

Vaccination, autism, and bowel disease will be forever linked together due to Dr. Andrew Wakefield. Wakefield published a study in 1998 on twelve patients whom he said proved that vaccinations could cause autism along with gastrointestinal disease. However, in this study he altered and misrepresented all the study participants’ medical histories and in doing so impacted medicine and public health for the foreseeable future (Cohen). Although the study was proven false within a year and Wakefield was stripped of his medical license individuals still

Live Science Contributor, Stephanie Pappas tell us that, “Wakefield was getting money from lawyers planning on suing vaccine makers, and he owned a patent on an alternative to the MMR (measles) vaccines,” [2] this statement is clear evidence of fraudulent activity and proves that Wakefield had corrupt reasons for undergoing this study in the first place. The second flaw to Wakefield's paper was the questionable practises of his study, for starters he based his study on twelve children that he “cherry picked,” and “although the paper claimed that cognitive problems developed a few days after the MMR vaccine, a simple investigation of hospital records revealed that wasnt so; and in several cases parents reported problems before the vaccine,” [2]. In summary, the investigation was sloppy and provided no tangible evidence that links autism to the MMR vaccine. Furthermore, it should be noted that the the link between autism and vaccines is purely coincidental, the symptoms of autism typically appear at around the age that vaccines are administered, in fact director of the Vaccine Education Centre at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Dr Paul Offit confirms this says, “Children get their first dose of the MMR vaccine at 12 to 15 months, the age at which autism symptoms typically