Amid Measles Outbreak, Anti-vaccine Doctor Revels in his Notoriety Terrence McCoy is a foreign affairs reporter for the Washington Post. On January 30th, McCoy published a telephone interview with Dr. Jack Wolfson about the anti-immunization controversy. Dr. Wolfson is a cardiologist who now does holistic medicine and supports the anti-immunization movement. According to WebMd.com, “holistic medicine is a form of healing that considers the whole person: body, mind, spirit, and emotions, in the quest for optimal health and wellness”. In his interview Dr. Wolfson called “bad mothers” who vaccinate their children without knowing or caring about what chemicals are in them. According to Dr. Wolfson, we should let children have measles, chicken pox, rubella, mumps because “these are the rights of our children to get it.” When I read this phrase, I asked myself, should we let our kids be in pain and suffer for something that we can prevent? …show more content…
Wolfson stated in his interview “Measles is not a big deal.” Measles outbreak in the United States has increased tremendously since parents refuse to have their children vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published a report, “Measles Cases and Outbreaks,” that shows how the measles cases have been increase nationwide. This controversy started when “The Lancet” published a research made by Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who suggested the vaccine can cause autism. After investigation the British medical journal published an article criticizing Dr.Wakefield and accusing him of fraud. As a result “The Lancet” retracted the research. The dishonest research and violation of ethic caused Dr. Wakefield to lose his medical license. However, Dr. Wakefield’s research made a big impact in the way some American parents view vaccines. These parents now refuse to have their children vaccinate and blame the vaccine for their developmental
Measles, mumps, and rubella. Viruses that have become so rare most nobody knows the dangers and symptoms. But since the preventative measure of vaccinations have been used less and less in Ashland Oregon, these outbreaks are predicted to occur. Cluster of Ashland, Oregon parents have created a dangerous community brewing with diseases ready to erupt by choosing to opt-out of vaccinating their children. Misinformation circulating the Internet activated an anti-vaccination cluster that could be reversed with legitimate evidence of risks and benefits of immunizing kids,
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 recent years more and more parents have become misled by fallacious claims towards vaccinations which have caused for a decrease in childhood vaccinations for preventable diseases cause side effects such as autism and sudden infant death syndrome. The study that influenced many parents to not vaccinate their children was done by Andrew Wakefield, and his study claimed that vaccines such as Measles, Mumps, and
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).
In December of 2014, an outbreak of measles, which started in Disneyland, resulted in nearly two hundred people being sickened across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The highly contagious respiratory disease spread for three months. Among those who contracted the illness, one developed severe pneumonia and multiple organ injury, while another suffered acute respiratory distress syndrome. So, why did an illness, which was purportedly eliminated sixteen years ago, experience a surge so dramatic that it caused more cases in 2014 than in the five preceding years combined? According to the CDC, the outbreak could be boiled down to one simple reason: “The majority of people were unvaccinated.” So while the California measles outbreak is a thing of the past, the fight to increase compliance with vaccinations continues. Although the benefits and safety of vaccinations are undisputed by the medical and scientific community, there are still sizeable groups of “anti-vaxxers” who refuse to vaccinate their children. These groups spread misconceptions, sometimes unknowingly, and become even more influential when coupled with the power of the internet and social media. Therefore, in order to increase compliance with routine vaccinations, the misconceptions of parents should be targeted, and legislation should be changed in order to prevent leniency and loopholes regarding vaccine exemptions.
This led to the support of various unproven vaccine-autism theories by parents in both the UK and America. After findings of intestinal disease in children with autism, Wakefield claimed that separating the MMR into three different vaccinations would be safer. Since then, Wakefield’s research has been discredited, he was charged with serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council for violating several ethical practices, and he was investigated for failing to disclose conflict of interest – a pending patent on a rival measles vaccine (Gross, 2009). Although false, many still believe wholeheartedly that vaccines are harmful.
Vaccinations have been around for many years, preventing many generations from encountering harmful diseases that at one time lead to death. Recently, there has been an anti-vaccine movement composed of parents debating over whether or not their child’s safety is in the best interest due to harmful side effects that have been identified when it comes to specific vaccines. The CDC recommends each child have a set of sixteen different vaccinations by the age of 6 years old, of those being the MMR which comes in 2 separate doses. By giving children vaccines there is an opportunity to minimize the risk of spreading the virus to other children and gives the whole society the chance to build immunity against an outbreak. Even though the incidence of many diseases has fallen drastically due to the result of these vaccination programs, individuals who are apart of the anti-vaccine movement continue to forgo their children from receiving the vaccinations, like the MMR vaccine because of the fear of possible side effects, including autism. Scientists and doctors are using their voices to show that science has found no link that the MMR vaccine causes autism, while most anti-vaccine movement members have chosen to use the false information as their explanation for not vaccinating their children. Parents should always be given the right to choose what they think is best for the children, but given the health benefits, safety precautions and scientific evidence of low incidence rates
There are many viruses today that at one time were a deadly disease, however because of advances in technology and vaccinations, we no longer give them a second thought. Prior to the discovery of a vaccination, the United States reported a total of over 50,000 cases of measles outbreaks each year with 450-500 cases resulting in death. (NCIRD) Since the disbursement of an effective vaccination, the measles has been almost eradicated in the United States; however it is still abundant in other countries around the world. (The college of physicians of Philadelphia) Is this something we think of when we are traveling? Is it possible for people to visit or immigrate to the United States carrying the disease with
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,
Conclusion: in conclusion my research I found that since the introduction of the MMR vaccine programs in Britain that it had a very effective effect on the measles epidemiology. In my data you will see since the introduction of the vaccine program in 1988 the number of notifications (cases) and deaths has dropped drastically and also can be seen in a wide perspective when comparing the readings to the 1940's readings.
With the effective work carried out by all agencies involved in the measles epidemic, the outbreak was declared over on July 2rd 2013 this is thought to have been a short time frame and could of lasted a lot longer if it wasn’t for the commitment and combined efforts provided by all agencies including primary care, local authorities, health boards and public health wales (BBC, 2013).
After proving that the vaccine was both safe and efficient, first by experimenting on monkeys and then humans, John Enders and his colleagues announced their measles vaccine that was capable of preventing the virus (The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 2015). The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine contains small traces of each virus. The vaccine is such as a success as it triggers the immune system to produce antibodies against all three viruses. Thus, when one comes into contact with one of these highly contagious viruses, the immune system will recognise it and immediately produce the antibodies needed to fight it (Better Health, 2015). Regular routine MMR vaccination for children, with additional mass immunization campaigns in countries with high numbers of outbreaks and deaths, are key public health strategies to reduce global measles deaths (World Health organization, 2015). In 2013, about 84% of the world's children received 1 dose of measles vaccine by their first birthday through routine health services – up from 73% in 2000. Two doses of the vaccine are recommended to ensure immunity and prevent outbreaks, as about 15% of vaccinated children fail to develop immunity from the first dose (World Health Organization, 2015). The technology and understanding of the measles virus
Measles (also known as rubeola or “red measles”) is an acute, febrile viral infection that was a very familiar childhood infection world-wide until the introduction of an attenuated live-virus vaccine in the 1960’s. Now it is rarely seen in the United States and the rest of the medically developed world, re-emerging usually only when and where there has been a lapse in routine immunization practices and the necessary high levels of vaccine coverage have dropped. On a global scale, prior to the measles vaccine, the effects of measles were devastating — millions died from measles each year in all parts of the world. However, global measles deaths are diminishing, decreased by 75% from an estimated 544,200 in 2000 to 145,700 in 2013 (Moss and Griffin, 2012; WHO, 2015 Feb).
Even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available, measles is one of the leading cause of death among young children.
Though many diseases no longer affect people in the United States, thanks to immunization, these diseases are still active in other parts of the world. Therefore, when people go to other countries, they can bring back these diseases if they are unvaccinated. According to CNN in the year of 2014, “The measles outbreak that began when unvaccinated Amish missionaries traveled to the Philippines has more than doubled in size in ten days… At least 155 people have caught this highly contagious respiratory disease.” Measles is a respiratory disease that can be easily prevented by vaccinations. It can go unnoticed for up to 21 days before symptoms start showing, which gives this disease a lot of time to spread to other people. Luckily, vaccines are