Inquiry Based Research Essay #2

Mistaking Myths For Facts: How Parents Are Killing Their Children With One Decision

What are the effects of not vaccinating infants on the overall public health in the United States?

Abstract:

As the medical field continues to advance and grow, vaccines remain the one of the world’s greatest inventions. Due to vaccines, chronic diseases such as polio have successfully been eradicated (“Vaccine ProCon”). Although the improvements for vaccinations continue to increase, immunizing the public is a countrywide challenge. In this article I discuss not only why parents do not vaccinate their infants, but what effect that has on the overall public health. Common but false assumptions about vaccines are debunked in this article and the truth is explained. The recent controversies over parents not vaccinating their children will hopefully shift in the next decade and serve as a chilling lesson for the dangers of parents making unsafe decisions for their infants.

Introduction:

“Not vaccinating a child impacts both the unvaccinated child and the larger community” (Makielski). Vaccinations have existed since the 1700s, when the first vaccine for smallpox was created (Hajar 43). They have successfully protected humans from diseases such as smallpox, measles, polio, whooping cough, and mumps. While not everyone can be vaccinated due to allergies or autoimmune diseases the development of herd immunity, the idea that vaccinating a large percentage of a population will protect the unvaccinated, saves their lives (Cohen 1123). That is, until a population consists of a large number of people who are not vaccinated. There are multiple effects parents create by not vaccinating their children that end up affecting the overall public health of residents of the US.

Those Who Can’t Be Vaccinated- The Autoimmune and The Allergic:

There are two groups of people concerning vaccines: those who are vaccinated and those who are not vaccinated. Regarding those who are not vaccinated, it is either due to personal choice or because their health prevents them from receiving the injection. For instance, someone suffering from an autoimmune disease and has their own immune system constantly attacking itself is not safe to receive vaccines for diseases such as meningococcal or the flu (“Autoimmune Disease”; Boulanger and Slowiczek). Due to their own immune system being weakened from self-destruction, their bodies are not able to fight the weakened virus that is in a vaccine. Since they cannot be protected from diseases, an outbreak of a vaccine-prevented disease is deadly to someone with an autoimmune disease. One four year old with acute lymphoblastic leukemia died after an outbreak of chicken pox due to their immune system being compromised from chemotherapy (Iannelli). Nearly twenty percent of the children that die before age 5 are dead due to contracting a vaccine preventable disease (Jarosz and Naik). These diseases attack the young and the old, those that cannot be vaccinated.

Those who are allergic to ingredients in vaccines have the same dangers as someone with an autoimmune disease. If they were to receive a vaccine and have an allergic reaction, their symptoms may be life threatening such as a fever over 105 F, seizures, or a nervous system disease (“Your Child’s First Vaccine”). Reactions are rare, but too severe to risk taking a chance with. Since the patient is allergic to the vaccine, they are not protected from the disease and are at risk and susceptible for contracting vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, whooping cough, or polio. Children with egg or gelatin related allergies are at risk for having an allergic reaction to certain flu and measles vaccines (Schuval; “Egg Allergy”). Similar to people with autoimmune diseases, those who are unable to be immunized for medical reasons will suffer extreme consequences if they are exposed to a deadly or chronic disease such as measles or polio. The allergy to the vaccine leaves them vulnerable to contracting the full-blown disease. By not vaccinating infants that can survive immunization, parents are not only putting their unvaccinated children at risk, but the public at risk as well for not every human can survive a vaccination.

Continuous Consequences- Chronic Diseases as a Result of Not Vaccinating:

By not vaccinating their child, parents enable that child to pass on diseases to the public. Teens, adults, pregnant mothers, and the elderly become sick because an infant that is not vaccinated is able to infect others. These infections are most commonly spread through the air and can cause disastrous results. For example, contracting measles can cause brain swelling, contracting mumps can cause permanent deafness, and contracting polio can cause permanent paralysis (“Risks and Responsibilites”). If a pregnant woman is infected with rubella in her first trimester of pregnancy, her child may have congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) as a result (“The Harm of Skipping Vaccinations”). CRS can cause heart defects, deafness, and developmental delays in a child. A child that is unvaccinated is 22-35 times more likely to contract measles, compared to a child that is vaccinated (Makielski). Diseases like measles, mumps, and polio are chronic, meaning that there is no cure for these diseases. Treatments can vary from antibiotics for symptoms such as pneumonia and fevers, to managing severe complications like brain swelling or miscarriages (“Symptoms of Measles, Mumps Rubella”). Not vaccinating infants leads to the development of chronic diseases. This will not kill the public but instead force them to live the remainder of their lives in misery.

Myth- There is No Effect When Parents Do Not Vaccinate Their Infants:

Not every infant that can be vaccinated is vaccinated. Parents that do not vaccinate their children have multiple reasons for why they are making this decision-such as religious and moral reasons. 46 out of 50 states allow parents to refuse vaccinations for their child for religious reasons. When parents do not vaccinate their child based off religious reasons, they are more likely to refuse all vaccinations for their child. The religious reasons are often due to controversial ingredients in vaccines-such as gelatin that comes from animals or human fetal tissue in rubella vaccinations (McKee and Bohannon).

When confronted about the public health, parents retort back that there is no effect on the overall public health when they do not vaccinate their children. They believe that the vaccine itself or side effects from the vaccine are more dangerous than the risk of not being immunized. Thoughts that autism is linked to vaccines and that vaccines contain dangerous amounts of elements such as mercury, as well as vaccines causing brain damage are common among parents that do not vaccinate their children (McKee and Bohannon). Parents will read articles about the dangers of vaccines and experience doubtful and fearful emotions. Instead of consulting their doubts or fears with doctors, parents will decide for their child to not vaccine them. Thus, parents think that they are saving their children by not giving them a harmful and unnatural injection.

Parents also do not see the point in giving their child a vaccine either against a disease that is eradicated or close to eradication. For instance, in the United States polio has been eradicated since 1979 (“Vaccines ProCon”). This belief is also supported because a majority of diseases that vaccines prevent are not deadly. Infections such as chicken pox and measles most commonly only have one symptom: a rash (“Vaccines ProCon”). As a result, parents do not realize the importance in vaccinating their children, as they do not notice the detrimental effects not vaccinating has on the overall public health. This belief that there is no effect when a parent does not vaccinate their infants is a myth, and is proved to be one with scientific facts.

The Real Effect On The Public Health:

When parents choose not to vaccinate their infant against diseases like measles or the chicken pox, there is an effect and that effect is negative to society. There have already been four cases of measles recorded as of November 2, 2018 (Cervenka). And while over the course of 16 years, 20.4 million deaths from measles have been prevented due to the vaccine, there are still 100-300 measles cases in the United States annually. In 2016, when there were 86 cases reported, 56% of those cases were patients that were unvaccinated. Diseases that should have been eradicated in the United States many years ago still exist because someone that is unvaccinated will travel to another country, then infect Americans upon their arrival back home to the states (“Measles Data and Statistics”). Due to infants not receiving vaccinations, diseases such as measles will take multiple more years to eradicate.

Unvaccinated children that grow up and become unvaccinated adults are infected with preventable diseases and infect others that are also unvaccinated. They are spreading infectious diseases that should be eradicated but are not. Herd immunity cannot be effective unless a majority of the population is vaccinated, so when parents do not vaccinate their infants they are increasing the vulnerability of other non-vaccinated children. Parents that look at the death rates of diseases, such as measles, and assume the small number supports their decision to not vaccinate their infants are wrong. There are severe effects of not vaccinating, not just death. This evidence is explained by, “Before the introduction of the measles vaccine in the US in the 1960s, there were “only” 400–700 measles deaths a year. However, there were 4,000 cases of measles encephalitis a year (many of which led to neurological complications such as blindness, deafness and mental disability), 150,000 cases of respiratory complications, and 48,000 measles-related hospitalizations a year” (Isabella B.). Death is not the only effect of not vaccinating your infant, for instance chronic diseases have revealed themselves to be long years of pain and suffering.

With vaccinations there is more than meets the eye. Vaccines do not cause autism and the ingredients in vaccines are safe to be injected into a child (“Vaccines ProCon”). One controversial ingredient in particular, thimerosal, has been declared absent from vaccines. “Thimerosal had been commonly used to prevent microbial contamination of vaccines…but decades of use after that had, as far as could be discerned, revealed only occasional skin hypersensitivity reactions due to this component”. For instance, in 2002, “of the three pediatric vaccines that contained thimerosal in the 1990s, only 2% of vaccine stock still contained thimerosal” (Gorski). While this ingredient was safe to be in vaccinations, it was still removed from the formula. And after thimerosal was removed from vaccines, the rates of autism have increased over the last decade, thus rejecting the idea that vaccines are linked to causing autism.

Vaccines protect children and adults from dangerous diseases. When a parent chooses to not vaccinate their child, they are willingly choosing to put the public’s health in danger. It is a selfish choice that parents must stop making. There is an effect, with only negative consequences, when parents do not vaccinate their infants.

This graph demonstrates the effect of the measles vaccine on the number of measles cases from 1912-2001. After the creation of the vaccine, the number of cases dramatically decreases and has consistently remained a low number in 2018 compared to the number of cases from the 1940s. Even though there are still outbreaks today, this graph proves the effectiveness of vaccines on removing diseases from a country (Isabella B).

Similarly, the rate of deaths from chicken pox in the United States dramatically decreases after the creation of the vaccine. Now, parents do not have to rely on their children contracting chicken pox at a young age to be immune from the disease. This graph also demonstrates a positive effect that vaccines have on the public health (Isabella B).

Conclusion:

Contrary to a popular belief, vaccines do not harm children. It is more harmful to not only the infant, but to the overall public to deny that infant vaccinations as well. Through this research about the effects of not vaccinating, it can be determined that not vaccinating your infant can cause chronic diseases and even death. Those who cannot be vaccinated due to medical reasons, such as autoimmune diseases or allergies to ingredients in vaccines, are in danger due to parents that choose not to vaccinate their children. The effects of not vaccinating your children are detrimental to society as a whole. Vaccinations have given children immunity against deadly diseases; therefore, these injections are a solution to the epidemic of people dying in America from vaccine-preventable diseases.

 

Works Cited:

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Cervenka, Susanne. “Fourth Case of Measles Confirmed in Lakewood Outbreak.” Asbury Park    Press, Asbury Park Press, 2 Nov. 2018,        www.app.com/story/news/health/2018/11/02/fourth-case-measles-confirmed-lakewood- outbreak/1857921002/.

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