Christopher Columbus’s brother took a census of the American Indians in 1496 and had a total of 1.1 million, but by 1555, they ceased to exist (Loewen, 57). James W. Loewen describes in his book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, Christopher Columbus coming to the Americans and the death toll placed on American Indians, partly due to new diseases, such as measles. After measles helped kill the entire Indian population, measles began appearing in Northern America in the early 1600’s. Centuries went by until, as the Center for Disease Control or CDC states, the year 1912 when the United States recognized measles as a national disease. They explained it as a highly contagious virus. This illness is spread by coughing and sneezing and the virus can …show more content…
The new trend of parents not having their children vaccinated for measles is causing harm to the child and contributing to future outbreaks of the disease.
Today, parents are not vaccinating their children for a number of reasons, whether it is religious beliefs, it is not natural, and some parents are even trying to link vaccinations to the rise in autism. This however has been proven false and stated in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The increase in vaccinations and the increase in children with autism happened at the same time, which leads some parents to believe that is why their child was diagnosed with autism, but this is correlation not causation. There is no real scientific test to diagnose autism and it is based off of the child’s social and communication skills and their behavior. A retrospective study was done from 1980 to 1994 where scientist recorded the amount of children receiving the measles vaccination and the amount of children diagnosed with autism. Over this time span, there was only a 10% increase in the amount of children receiving the MMR vaccine and 572% increase in children with autism. If the MMR vaccine was the cause of autism, then they should have increased at the same rate and therefore concluding that autism is caused by other unknown factors.
First, the new trend of parents now having
The researchers looked over the health records of 95,727 children, including more than 15,000 children unvaccinated at age 2 and more than 8,000 still unvaccinated at age 5. 2,000 of these children were considered at risk for autism because they were born into families that already had a child with the disorder.The study looked at the autism rates and MMR vaccination at ages 2, 3, 4 and 5 years olds. It showed no increase in Autism in any age. Autism rates we surprisingly lower in vaccinated
Many believe the measles mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine triggers autism spectrum disorder in some children. Many Hollywood celebrities in the acting community that have birthed children that suffer from autism spectrum disorder have concluded that this is how their child developed autism. These celebrities being very vocal about this link between vaccinations and autism spectrum disorders and have in turn influenced the increase in many ordinary middle-class parents refraining from getting the medically recommended vaccinations for their children. The medical community has done extensive research on this theory. However, to this date no reliable study shows a link between autism spectrum disorder and the measles mumps-rubella vaccine. In fact, the medical community have continued to recommend childhood vaccinations and continue to emphasis the danger of a non vaccinated child catching and spreading serious diseases like whooping cough (pertussis), measles and mumps (Mayo Clinic, 2012).
autism were studied, it was suggested that measles was related to autism. Seven years later they did another study that involved 4000 children and found just the opposite, shots had no connection to causing a person to receive the diagnosis of autism”. (Offit 1) (Thinktwice 1) There are probably multiple causes for
The controversy over the MMR vaccine started in the late 1990’s when Andrew Wakefield suggested that there was a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism in a scientific paper which he had published with several other co-authors. Although there has not been a proven fact that the MMR vaccine is the causation to autism it has brought concerns to parents and has caused a major drop in immunization rates. For example, Dannetun et al., 2005 states that, “Fear of side effects and beliefs
Measles was at one time in the not too distant past, a killer of those that became infected. Measles has been around for centuries. The first published, written account of the disease was in the ninth century by a Persian doctor. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website on measles, it was not until 1757 that a Scottish physician, named Francis Home, proved that something infectious in the blood was causing the disease. By the early 1900’s, the United States began requiring every healthcare provider and laboratory to report all identified cases, with approximately 6,000 deaths being
The topic of the article is the connection (or lack of) between childhood vaccines (MMR) and autism. Contrary to popular opinion, vaccines are not linked to autism in any shape or form and there is no scientific evidence to support it.
Do vaccines cause autism is a question that has been bouncing around for over twenty years. The increase in the number of diagnosed cases of Autism Spectrum Disorder has increased significantly and due to the impact this has in people’s lives several studies have been done in an effort to determine the cause. More specifically the MMR, Measles, Mumps, and Rubella, vaccination has been accused of being the cause of autism. This accusation then contributed to families not vaccinating their children. Even though science disproves the link between vaccines and autism in several studies done in the United Kingdom, California, and Canada, many people cling to the vaccination-autism connection (Gerber, 2009).
Millions upon millions of people would die everyday form deadly disease and there was nothing anyone could do about it. As a result, vaccinations were created to stop the sickness and mass tragedy that came along with them. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations (MMR), that are supposed to help are being questioned by people believing they are linked to Autism. Numerous studies have shown that there is no connection between the two. The holes and lies in this theory are prevalent when looking in depth at how this theory was established, whom it benefits if it's true, and the facts that disprove it.
Regarding the article, “Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress, Dr. Howard Zinn argues that there is another perspective to consider as to Christopher Columbus’ adventures. Dr. Howard Zinn’s position is that history books have omissions of slavery, death and innocent bloodshed that accompanied the adventures of Christopher Columbus. In the following statements Dr. Howard Zinn describes his perspective; “The writer began the history, five hundred years ago, of the European invasion of the Indian Settlement in the Americas. That beginning, when you read Las Casas- even if his figures are exaggerations (were there 3 million Indians to begin with, as he says or 250,000, as modern historians calculate) is conquest, slavery, and death. When
The whole MMR vaccination and Autism inspiration was first brought about by three key points. In the book “The Everything Parent 's Guide To Vaccines: Balanced, Professional Advice To Help You Make The Best Decision For Your Child” the author told what they were in an authentic way. It stated “The first was an observation that the number of children diagnosed with Autism increased dramatically right around the same time the MMR combination vaccine became introduced in the United States and Great Britain. The second was based on a study by Dr. Andrew Wakefield in 1998 Published in the respected scientific journal Lancet. The third is based on the fact that children with Autism were first diagnosed with the condition right after they received the MMR vaccine.” (Leslie 67). However, these three points didn’t gain an exceptional start since Dr. Wakefield was later found not credible, and his license is under legal indictment (Leslie 69). Since Dr. Wakefield did not follow through with a credible study, it severely damaged his followers opinions and did not help the theory that Autism and vaccinations are linked.
One subject that has been very controversial for many years is the role of vaccinations causing Autism spectrum disorder in children. Since Eric Gallup was a healthy baby until he received was his first measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination in 1986. His parent noticed his behavior and ability to communicate after took the vaccinated. Eric had a serious reaction to the vaccine, according to his parent. In the year of 1989, he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Eric Gallup’s parents developed a hypothesis that childhood vaccine was responsible for Eric's autism spectrum disorder.
In 1988, it was falsely stated by Dr. Wakefield in his series featured in a journal that the MMR vaccine was the potential cause of autism. Ever since, many people have believed vaccinations have some connection with autism, especially parents with autistic children. However, science and research have shown that his claim was false and that there is no evident link between vaccines and autism. Scientists studied vaccines, and their data showed that there was no relationship between autism and vaccinations, autism and MMR, vaccination and thimerosal, and vaccination and mercury. The data also showed that there is no evidence of increased risk of developing ASD after taking the MMR vaccine. This doesn’t mean that doctors have cancelled out the connection between vaccines and all disorders, but autism definitely has no link. Also, if parents think not vaccinating their child will prevent them from getting autism, research has shown that kids who are vaccinated have the same rates of getting autism than those who haven’t. So if you are a parent deciding whether or not to vaccinate your child, autism isn’t something you should consider.
The argument that vaccines cause Autism began in 1998 when British surgeon Andrew Wakefield published a study, suggesting that the MMR vaccine given to prevent measles, mumps, and rubella increased autism in children. Autism is a mental condition involving issues in the brain development, it is
On the contrary, some parents tend to have the fallacy that the measles vaccine is linked with autism. According to The New York Times, “there is simply no scientific evidence that links vaccines to autism,” and a study with “more than fifteen million children, looking specifically at the MMR vaccine [which is the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine] could find no evidence that vaccines are associated with autism” (Carroll).
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