Despite the healthy benefits of inoculating children, parents still ask, “Is this right for my baby?” Since the heightened rate of autism among children, many parents have wondered if vaccines are to blame. Out of fear or the thought of saving their children, parents skip vaccines that protect children from harmful diseases such as tuberculosis, measles, mumps, and several others. Other parents simply believe that vaccines are unnatural and that if the child eats clean and lives healthy their body will naturally resist these diseases. This is all, of course, preposterous. Scientifically speaking, no amount of clean eating can protect a child against the mumps. It has also been proven that vaccinations do not cause autism of any kind. With the risks being voided out, the answer is clear: parents must vaccinate their children.
The most obvious reason to vaccinate children is because it keeps them healthy and safe from harmful diseases. Bradley K. Ackerson and his associates published information in American Journal of Managed Care stating that vaccinations were not only in the child’s best interest, but in the interest of the greater population (2012). Vaccinations keep the child free from diseases that may otherwise make them miserable, or even kill them, but the vaccinations also keep other children safe. According to Ackerson’s article, some children are unable to receive the inoculation. Usually due to allergies, the system of some children is unable to support the vaccine. Vaccinating children that are able to withstand the vaccination help keep children who are unable to receive it safer than if nobody was being vaccinated. Epidemics are also avoided with the help of simple vaccinations. Advances in modern medicine help protect children from more diseases than ever thought possible. Many diseases that would once quickly kill a child are being eradicated entirely with effective vaccines (2012). A good example is polio. At one point polio was America’s most-feared disease. It caused paralysis and death everywhere it spread. However, thanks to helpful and safe vaccinations, polio is only a memory. There are no longer reports of it in the US (2012). Some parents tend to hear this information and think, somewhat logically, that there is no longer a need for polio vaccines because polio is gone. This is only half true. Polio is “gone” because we now have the antibodies that fight against it; if we discontinue vaccinations it will come back, just as any other disease would return if we stopped vaccinations. Vaccinations are important to keeping us healthy and disease free.
Despite the fact that vaccinations fight against disease, wipe them out, and help us live safer lives, parents still resist. This is primarily because for a long time vaccinations were thought to be linked with causing the rising rate in autism. One of the primary reasons for this is because a man named Dr. Wakefield published several papers linking MMR vaccinations, a standard vaccination received by children, to the cause of autism. For several years after, the media was flooded with stories of parents vaccinating their children for MMR. The children would become feverish, fall asleep, and wake up with a sudden “case of autism,” as Wakefield put it (2011). Many parents actively refused vaccination in this time, stating that they were afraid the same would happen to their child. They would rather take their chance with disease than risk their child waking up from a feverish nap with autism. With no evidence to prove Wakefield wrong, yet, many parents persisted with vaccinations, insisting that they would rather have an autistic child than a dead child. Studies published by Fiona Godlee in “Wakefield’s Article Linking MMR Vaccine and Autism Fraudulent” showed that less than 3% of children who received the MMR vaccine could have their autism reasonably linked to the inoculation (2011). Godlee also revealed that Wakefield was a fraud. In an effort to further his medical career he had essentially doctored the results of the studies that he performed. Whether he performed them or not is still under investigation. The documents linking MMR vaccinations to rates of autism, or children becoming autistic at all, were entirely fraudulent. Further investigations were performed on the suspected links between the MMR vaccine and autism; no connections were found (2011). As such, it is completely safe to vaccinate children.
Though it is now proven that vaccinations do not cause autism, and that they are lifesaving benefits that we must offer our children, parents still insist that they are unnatural. Many parents still believe, despite the studies performed regarding the links to autism, that vaccinations are unnatural and that, when left to its own devices, the human body will fight off disease if it is healthy. These parents believe that if they feed their children organic food and live a clean, natural way of life, their children’s immune systems will grow in such a way that they will sustain diseases such as polio, measles, or mumps. This, according to Graham N. Dixon and Christopher E. Clarke is simply impossible (2013). In their article, “Heightening Uncertainty Around Certain Science: Media Coverage, False Balance, and the Autism-Vaccine Controversy” Graham and Clarke acknowledge though even though the information Wakefield offered was falsified, it damaged the reputations of vaccinations (2013). Once thought to be a life-saving instrument, now parents question the vaccinations as well as their doctors. While the vaccinations do not cause autism, and this is scientifically proven, people still believe now more than ever that vaccinations are an unhealthy, unnatural substance to put into the body. Unfortunately, this decision not to vaccinate just one child, can impact many. Dixon and Clarke are quick to point out that while a healthy lifestyle is good, we need vaccinations in order to keep life-threatening diseases at bay (2013). Not doing so allows illnesses such as whooping cough, hepatitis, and tetanus to live on, as well as mumps and chicken pox to make resurgences. In order to avoid situations such as these it is important that parents understand inoculations are necessary to keep their children safe.
In summation, vaccinations can be a scary thing to administer to your child if you do not know what they are. Many uneducated people throw around the idea of mercury and it causes parents to panic. The truth of the matter is most of the discrepancies surrounding vaccinations have been dispelled for quite some time, leaving behind the fact that they are healthy alternatives to allowing children to contract deadly diseases. Vaccinations keep children safe from measles, mumps, rubella, influenza, chicken pox, polio, whooping cough, hepatitis A and B, and tuberculosis. The statements made by Wakefield about any links to autism were not only proven wrong, but blatantly falsified. There is also no scientific proof that eating organic foods and living a natural life will help a child fight off diseases that would otherwise by life-threatening. For all of these reasons it is important that children be vaccinated in a timely manner.
References
Ackerson, Bradley K., et al. "Impact of MMRV Combination Vaccine on Childhood Vaccination Compliance." American Journal of Managed Care (2012): 440-445. Galileo.
Dixon, Graham N. and Christopher E. Clarke. "Heightening Uncertainty Around Certain Science: Media Coverage, False Balance, and the Autism-Vaccine Controversy. ." Science Communication (2013): 358-382. Galileo .
Godlee, Fiona. "Wakefield’s article linking MMR vaccine and autism was fraudulent." BMJ Group (2011): 342-344. Print.
- They did not vaccinate their children because they did not want them to have autism.
- Later it was proven wakefield made up his studied
- This disproved the link between MMR vaccination and autism
- Vaccinations do not cause autism.
- Vaccinate your children.
- Some parents still believe vaccinations are bad
- They are unhealthy and unnatural
- Parents believe if a child eats organic they will fight off diseases naturally
- This is scientifically proven untrue.
- Vaccinate your children
- Conclusion
- Vaccinations are proven to be healthy
- They do not cause autism
- Eating healthy cannot protect against diseases.
- Vaccinations are important
