Lifeline

On the the anti-vaccination movement. 

Remember the good old times when everybody used to vaccinate their kids and you rarely ever heard anything from the anti-vaccination movement? Well, that’s no longer the case: welcome to 2018 where everybody has something to feel butt-hurt about. Though, I’m trying to keep an open mind here, so I dug deep to find out more about this movement. In this article I’ll be discussing some disastrous scenarios that could take place when you don’t vaccinate your kids and how science proved them wrong. 

The major objection to vaccination is the claim that it triggers autism in babies. In 1997 an article was published by the surgeon Andrew Wakefield that links the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism. Couple of years later his study was discredited due to ethical violations and procedural errors. Ever since many studies have been conducted on that matter. While none of them found a link between autism and vaccinations, people have taken this association very seriously. To discredit this link completely, studies have identified signs of autism in children before receiving the MMR vaccine. While other studies suggest that autism develops in utero.  

About the real cause of autism little is still known. We know that with the increasing numbers in vaccinations and people diagnosed with autism, our plastic usage, air- and water pollution and many other factors are on the rise as well and all of them are possible candidates of the real cause of autism. Or maybe the cases with autism aren’t really going up; we’re overly becoming more aware of mental diseases and less people are staying undiagnosed.  

Another objection is parents wondering why they would put their (seemingly) healthy children in danger by vaccinating them with weakened pathogens. The immune system of infants is weaker than our immune system and it can’t handle so many vaccines at once. Well, that’s not entirely true because an infant’s immune system is much stronger than you might think. Theoretically, a baby would be able to handle about 10.000 vaccines at once. Scientists believe that an immune system can never be overwhelmed by vaccinations. And I know what you might be thinking right now. Why bother vaccinating if our immune system is so strong? With healthy lifestyle and standard hygiene, vaccination might be an unnecessary luxury. The role of hygiene is indisputable, but it doesn’t guarantee 100% protection of diseases. Before the introduction of the first measles vaccine, rates of infection were about 400,000 cases a year in 1963. Seven years later the rate dropped to 25,000 cases a year. Note that the hygienic conditions stayed unchanged during those years. And even though our immune systems are strong, once you contract a disease, say measles, and you’re unvaccinated, you have a 1 in 500 chance of not surviving it. On the other hand, the chance of you getting side effects, like an allergic reaction,  due to the MMR vaccine is less than one-in-one million.  

Herd immunity is another term used by the anti-vaxxers. Simply put, an individual can’t contract a disease if they’re surrounded by individuals immune to the diseases. The pathogens simply can’t survive within that population. That’s why diseases that used to cause disasters, don’t pose a threat to us nowadays. But this herd immunity is attributable to vaccinations. With more people turning their back to vaccination, measles outbreaks are hitting harder and harder each year. Thus, vaccination is a must in order to keep those diseases at bay.  

“In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.” — Benjamin Franklin 

In conclusion, I need to stress something out because I truly believe that there’s been a misunderstanding here. Watching all 15 season of Grey’s Anatomy twice doesn’t make you qualified (enough) to make life endangering decisions for your kids. Vaccinations might seem like a scary thing because you basically inject kids with pathogens, but they might be just the thing that would save your kids’ life.  

There are many disasters out there, please let’s not make contracting diseases that could’ve been easily prevented with vaccination another one!