Every year, school children begin the same ritual; mandatory vaccinations. They bring home packets full of forms stating which vaccines are required for each child to attend school. For most families, this is just another duty to add to a checklist of things to do for school and gets done without a second thought, but for some, this is a dreaded process. Many parents choose to opt out of vaccinating their children for reasons such as, medical limitations and religious beliefs, but over the last few years, philosophical exemption has become more and more popular. Philosophical exemption allows people to choose not to vaccinate for any reason. If a patient it. The supporters of philosophical exemption are commonly known as, anti vaxxers. Refusing
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There are many reasons why a person cannot be vaccinated, the most common being age and health restrictions. Newborn babies as well as people with weakened immune systems such as, cancer patients, must be protected from disease to prevent injury and in some cases, death. Newborns cannot receive vaccines until they are at least two months old while cancer patients, even ones who were previously vaccinated, face an even greater risk of infection if exposed to an outbreak. Outbreaks are mainly caused by unvaccinated people. In January 2015, there was a large outbreak of measles in Disneyland. In this one case, there were at least 70 people who had contracted measles and out of these 70, 32 of the infected were unvaccinated, 1 was partly vaccinated and 7 were vaccinated (Xia). Dr. Gil Chavez stated, “We have had in two and a half weeks, as many cases as we had last year”. Measles is more contagious than polio, smallpox, or the flu. It can spread through the air and linger in a room long after an infected person has left, and most people who are infected with measles, don’t know they have it until they develop the characteristic red rash. Measles also has a 21 day incubation period, so an infected person can travel before they start showing symptoms (Fox). Because of this, there can be hundreds of contacts for each infected …show more content…
One of the main reasons so many people do not get vaccines is because they think vaccines cause autism. For a while, this was thought to be true, but in 2011, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who led a study which linked vaccines to autism, was found to have falsified the data used in the study and had his medical license stripped (Cohen). Despite proof that there is no connection between autism and vaccines, people still refuse to vaccinate for this reason. Before the assumption that vaccines cause autism, it was thought that vaccines caused cancer. William Tebb, a British activist, wrote in an 1892 paper that, “It is allowed by physicians that cancer may be caused by impregnating the blood with impure matter." Both theories say that cancer and autism can be “caught” similar to the way one can catch a cold, but science states that this is not the case. Autism is related to brain development and can worsen over time while cancer is caused by uncontrolled cell growth. It is not logical to blame vaccines for this just because vaccines have “impure” or “toxic” matter. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention release lists of vaccine ingredients and assures that vaccines are potent, sterile, and safe and that the amount of chemical additives is very small and is only used
There are many reasons why a person cannot be vaccinated, the most common being age and health restrictions. Newborn babies as well as people with weakened immune systems such as, cancer patients, must be protected from disease to prevent injury and in some cases, death. Newborns cannot receive vaccines until they are at least two months old while cancer patients, even ones who were previously vaccinated, face an even greater risk of infection if exposed to an outbreak. Outbreaks are mainly caused by unvaccinated people. In January 2015, there was a large outbreak of measles in Disneyland. In this one case, there were at least 70 people who had contracted measles and out of these 70, 32 of the infected were unvaccinated, 1 was partly vaccinated and 7 were vaccinated (Xia). Dr. Gil Chavez stated, “We have had in two and a half weeks, as many cases as we had last year”. Measles is more contagious than polio, smallpox, or the flu. It can spread through the air and linger in a room long after an infected person has left, and most people who are infected with measles, don’t know they have it until they develop the characteristic red rash. Measles also has a 21 day incubation period, so an infected person can travel before they start showing symptoms (Fox). Because of this, there can be hundreds of contacts for each infected …show more content…
One of the main reasons so many people do not get vaccines is because they think vaccines cause autism. For a while, this was thought to be true, but in 2011, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who led a study which linked vaccines to autism, was found to have falsified the data used in the study and had his medical license stripped (Cohen). Despite proof that there is no connection between autism and vaccines, people still refuse to vaccinate for this reason. Before the assumption that vaccines cause autism, it was thought that vaccines caused cancer. William Tebb, a British activist, wrote in an 1892 paper that, “It is allowed by physicians that cancer may be caused by impregnating the blood with impure matter." Both theories say that cancer and autism can be “caught” similar to the way one can catch a cold, but science states that this is not the case. Autism is related to brain development and can worsen over time while cancer is caused by uncontrolled cell growth. It is not logical to blame vaccines for this just because vaccines have “impure” or “toxic” matter. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention release lists of vaccine ingredients and assures that vaccines are potent, sterile, and safe and that the amount of chemical additives is very small and is only used