Why Get Vaccinated?
When some parents hear that they are required to vaccinate their children, they get upset. They feel like it is something they are being made to do. In reality, vaccinating children is not only protecting the health and safety of their children, but also those around them. The more people that are vaccinated, the more people that have decreased risk for disease. For example, imagine ten eleventh grade high school students in a classroom. One of the ten children received the meningococcal vaccination. The other nine did not. Five of the students are close friends, including the child who was vaccinated. One of the other friends acquires bacterial meningitis. Initially, she shows no signs of the illness. She continues sharing her drinks with her friends, especially the new berry water she likes. Two of her friends drink it. A few days later, she starts feeling sick and coughing in class. She was taught to cover her mouth with her arm when she coughs and sneezes, but it's really hard to remember when she is in class or to do when she is carrying her books from class to class. A few weeks later, two of the other friends and two other students in the class also test positive for bacterial meningitis.
Do Vaccines Really Work?
Vaccinations are considered one of the top 10 public health achievements of all time for a reason. Vaccinations work to not only eliminate the disease in particular regions but also to eradicate the disease. Smallpox has been eradicated on the planet. Prior to the use of the smallpox vaccine, 35% of those infected with smallpox died. Polio also is near eradication. In 1988 alone, nearly 350,000 individuals were affected by the paralysis of polio. The number of polio cases in the world declined to 37 in 2016. By these two vaccines alone, millions have been saved from disease, paralysis, and death. From 1950-1966, hundreds of thousands of people a year were infected with measles. This dropped off sharply in the 1960s when the measles vaccine was introduced. The number then fell to tens of thousands infected a year until the mid-1990s. In the 1990s and into the millennium, only a few hundred cases a year were reported in the United States. In this century, less than a dozen deaths caused from measles were reported. This is a direct result of individuals receiving measles vaccinations.
Some opponents of vaccines try to claim that vaccines cause autism. Extensive research and investigation of this issue has disproven this theory put forward by a poor research study. In the study, 12 children were examined who had autism. It was incorrectly concluded by the researcher that the 12 children all had vaccines and those vaccines caused autism. Later research found this was a coincidence and not a causation. Autism Speaks even states that there is no link between vaccines and autism. Rather, recent research has suggested that autism can be caused by genetic factors and also pregnant mothers using particular medications, such as antidepressants.
Sources:
World Health Organization. Questions and Answers on Immunization and Vaccination Safety. Found online at: http://www.who.int/features/qa/84/en/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What Would Happen If We Stopped Vaccinations? Found online at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/whatifstop.htm
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Reported Cases and Deaths from Vaccine Preventable Diseases, United States, 1950-2013. Found online at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/E/reported-cases.pdf
The History of Vaccines. Disease Eradication. Found online at: https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/disease-eradication
American Public Health Association. Vaccines. Found online at: https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/vaccines
Health.mo.gov. 2017-2018 Missouri School Immunization Requirements. Found online at: http://health.mo.gov/living/wellness/immunizations/pdf/1718schoolrequirements.pdf
National Meningitis Association. Is It Viral, Bacterial, or Fungal? Found online at: http://www.nmaus.org/disease-prevention-information/is-it-viral-bacterial-or-fungal/
Mayo Clinic. Meningitis: Self-Management. Found online at: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/meningitis/manage/ptc-20169618
Center for Young Women's Health. Meningococcal Vaccine. Found online at: http://youngwomenshealth.org/2010/06/09/meningococcal-vaccine/
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Public Health and Its Impacts. Found online at http://www.astho.org/Public-Policy/Federal-Government-Relations/Documents/Public-Health-and-Its-Impacts/
World Health Organization. Poliomyelitis. Found online at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs114/en/
Autism Speaks. What Causes Autism? Found online at: https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/learn-more-autism/what-causes-autism
T. Boukhris, O. Sheehy, L. Mottron, Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy and Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children. JAMA Pediatrics. Found online at: http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2476187
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