Essay On Vaccinating Children

Over the past few years, there has been debate over vaccinating children. Many people believe the invalid study that was conducted by Andrew Wakefield in 1998 which linked vaccinations to autism. Others refuse to vaccinate because of toxins in vaccines. This movement against vaccination could potentially lead to a large scale outbreak of diseases that were once thought to be on the path to eradication. I believe that all school aged children should be required to be vaccinated. The only exemption from vaccination should be for medical reasons. Vaccinations have been proven to decrease disease in populations and have very few side effects. The invention of vaccines has drastically decreased the occurrence of vaccine-preventable diseases (Omer, Salmon, & Orenstein, 2009). The benefits of receiving vaccinations far exceed the risks. While side effects do occur, the risk of severe adverse reactions to vaccinations is minimal. Some parents have reported signs of autism weeks after receiving vaccinations. However, vaccinations are given to children around the same time as symptoms of autism begin to show. Because of this timeframe some people believe that the vaccines caused the autism when in reality the correlation is a coincidence, not a causation. The two events are happening at similar times, however, one is not causing the other. Andrew Wakefield conducted a study in 1998 that linked vaccinations to increased risk of autism. His study was invalid because the participants were referred to him by a lawyer suing an MMR company, and data that was collected was inaccurate (Poland & Jacobson, 2001). Wakefield’s study was retracted and deemed fraudulent. There are dozens of studies that prove there is no increased risk of getting autism from receiving vaccines. Many celebrities have been endorsing anti-vaccine movements claiming the link to autism. This is a major concern because citizens are likely to listen to a celebrity even without scientific evidence proving the correlation between vaccines and autism. This further spreads inaccurate information and prevents children from being vaccinated. Many other parents refuse to vaccinate because they believe there are toxins in the vaccines that are unsafe. Thimerosal is the main ingredient concern. It is a mercury based preservative that was once used in vaccinations. In 1999 the FDA proactively pulled thimerosal out of vaccines due to public concern without any epidemiological studies that showed harm (Poland & Jacobson, 2001). This caused more concern because people believed the FDA would not pull thimerosal unless it was actually doing harm. Contrary to that idea, many epidemiological studies have been completed and all have shown no correlation between receiving vaccinations with thimerosal and autism or any other type …show more content…
Many of these diseases like polio, measles, and mumps have not been seen in their generation. They have never been personally effected by any of these diseases so they feel as if they are vaccinating for diseases that do not exist and that the vaccinations are unnecessary. Parents should be educated that these diseases still exist and can cause harm to their children. They should be educated that the reason they do not see a high prevalence of these diseases is because the majority of people are vaccinated. An outbreak is possible like the outbreak of Measles that started at Disneyland with one case that spread to over 90 people. These once almost eliminated diseases will come back if people stop