One of the first major vaccinations to become publicly and widely administered was the measles vaccine. A generation of parents had watched and grown up with children breaking out in rashes, having high fevers, and catching encephalitis (brain swelling) which could be fatal. So, in 1963 when the Measles vaccine became widely administered to all children, it was viewed as a godsend. Now, almost 70 years later, measles has come back with 142 reported cases in 2018 so far. One of the main reasons for this and other childhood diseases like mumps, whooping cough, and chickenpox coming back is the anti-vaccination movement.
New parents, scared of big Pharma and injecting foreign chemicals into their child’s bodies, have decided to withhold their children from having common vaccinations without understanding the consequences. Now, while many might think this an insular problem that can only affect those unvaccinated, having a child without protection to old but deadly diseases puts everyone that unvaccinated host interacts within danger- vaccinated or not. This is an incredibly dangerous movement that will get worse unless there is a giant cause of attention pulled to it.
There are three main components of a vaccination shot: the syringe, the clear chemical, and the 25-gauge needle. Now while this makes vaccinations scary to look at, they have a myriad of benefits for the price of small band-aid. The interesting part about the shot is the vaccination itself. The chemical part of the vaccination has antigens, recombinant DNA, stabilizers, and emulsifiers. The main part that most people look into is the antigens, everything else is mostly used to allow the antigens to pass into your body easily and keep its liquid form. Antigens are very weakened forms of the disease. Specifying on a common childhood vaccination, the Measles Mumps and Rubella vaccination (MMR), the antigens in the MMR vaccine would have weakened asymptomatic versions of measles, mumps, and rubella that have an almost nonexistent chance of becoming active.
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The majority of childhood vaccinations have been around for almost 60 years now, allowing for multiple versions to have been tried and tested causing vaccinations to reach an almost perfect form (Barrett). Unfortunately, as with most modern medicine, there are some risks. The MMR vaccination specifically can cause a slight fever and some swelling or an infection if the vaccination is administered wrong. However, measles mumps and rubella can all cause long-term disabilities, infertility, and death. Also, a child who is unvaccinated is not only a risk to themselves but also everyone they come to contact with as they can carry the disease.
On May 14th, 1796 James Phillips was the first boy to be vaccinated against the smallpox disease by Edward Jenner. Years earlier, when he was a young boy “Jenner heard a dairymaid say, ‘I shall never have smallpox for I have had cowpox. I shall never have an ugly pockmarked face.’ (Riedel).” Jenner had developed a way to use a less deadly strain of smallpox, referred to commonly as cowpox, to inoculate people so they could build antibodies against the deadly disease. However, in the 220 years since that point, a lot has changed. The virulent and dangerous disease of ignorance which has overtaken upper middle class seems to all be rooted from one study. A former scientist, Andrew Wakefield, released a study linking a component of vaccinations to autism. Quickly after the study was released, the research was proven falsified and Wakefield was disbarred. Despite this, many still link vaccinations to autism, some notable celebrities being Jenny McCarthy and Kat Von D.
Parents.com is the tenth most visited parenting website on the internet. Bandari, a human sciences researcher, put together a study of all forum posts relating to vaccinations from 2003 to 2012. The study found that the 5 top reasons people hesitated toward vaccinations were: risk, science, community, disparity in medicine, and religion. A lot of these people thought that they were more right than others and special in their thinking. However, nearly none of the posts talked about the legitimate risks of not vaccinating like getting others sick or bringing back eradicated illnesses.
The anti-vaccination movement is deadly in its ignorance. States should make it harder to not vaccinate children, physicians should refuse to treat unvaccinated children, and the media should put more work into disproving incorrect studies before that misinformation spreads. This is a lifelong decision that should not be made based on incorrect data. The wrong decision could kill not only one child but everyone connected to that family.
