The Vaccine Debate: Breaking Hoaxes and Looking For Scientific Evidence Free Essay Example

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Does Science Disprove Vaccines

In light of what was being said before, there have been actual scientist to prove the vaccine hoax wrong. A study that was done in Denmark in 2004 by doctor Kreesten Meldgaard Madsen helps to prove how some parents believe vaccines cause autism.

She studied 537,303 children, both vaccinated and unvaccinated. “ We found no difference in the risk for autism in vaccinated and unvaccinated children, even when other factors were taken into account, such as age at vaccination. The risk was similar in vaccinated and unvaccinated children both with respect to the narrow definition of autistic disorder and other autistic-spectrum disorders. Finally, there was no clustering of autism diagnoses in the time after vaccination, by age of the child at vaccination or by date of vaccination.

” (Madsen, 2005) Madesen is one of the many doctors to help prove this hoax incorrect. As was mentioned in the review, the chances for autism did not increase or decrease within any of the children. The vaccinations the children were giving impacted on the disease, but not on their chances for autism. Her research ran from January 1991 through December 1998, with all the children being born in the same place.

In addition to parents not wanting to vaccinate their children because they believe it causes autism, some parents also believe that vaccinations cause babies to have a weaker immune system. Parents do not understand that many diseases are easily spread to babies as they are already born with very weak immune systems. Babies are exposed to bacteria at all times which is what build their immune system, not the vaccinations they are receiving. A recent study was done in Africa to pregnant women that was continued until after their births. The women were given supplements while pregnant to see how the babies would react to the vaccinations. “In conclusion, we have shown that giving nutritional supplements containing a combination of micronutrients and macronutrients to nutritionally vulnerable pregnant women in rural sub-Saharan Africa improves antibody response to vaccination in early infancy.” (Darboe, Faye-Joof, Moore, Okala, Prentice, Sonko & Sosseh, 2019) There was no difference in the baby’s immune systems because of the supplements. The vaccines are to prevent a certain disease, not to make their immune systems stronger.

Equally important, parents believe there are health risks in vaccinating their children. They believe the side effects of a vaccine can cause equal to as much of a risk as the actual disease. A common misconception is with the flu shot. The shot gives you side effect that may seems like the flu, but actually not. You might get a fever, but not a fever the flu will give you that will have you be hospitalized. Similarly, in the UK there is a controversy with the MMR vaccination. Just like with the flu, they believe the side-effects are just as much of a risk. “Mass shifts in public confidence in immunisation have been attributed to media generated controversy.” (Petts & Niemeyer, 2004) Parents believe that because there is such a low infection rate for a certain disease, their child is not likely to get it. That is where parents are very wrong. Children and adults are not as likely to get the diseases because they are vaccinated, but the ones that are not are very susceptible. Diseases do not just go away and are always around, people just have their vaccinations and immune systems fighting against it, but your immune system alone cannot fight them. Parents do not understand that the symptoms you happen to get is your body responding to the vaccination, not to the disease.

Furthermore, there is the hoax of vaccinations causing an inflammatory bowel disease. More specifically, a measles vaccination. In 1995 there was a study that linked the measles vaccine to causing an inflammatory bowel disease but was quickly disproved in a case-controlled study in 1997. “This was followed by a 1997 case-control study showing no association between measles vaccination and IBD.” (Bohlke & Davis, 2001) Parents kept trying to make the vaccine be the problem when they did not know if it was a change in exposure to environmental or infectious agents. At the end of the study, they realized that the problem came from well before the children were even born. Some children also developed it very early in life.

Why People Believe It

Lately, there has been a very large rise in the number of parents that are believing in the vaccination hoaxes and are not wanting to vaccinate their children. In our society now a days, most people use the internet, and then also believe everything on it. When one doctor does a study that closely links a vaccine hoax to a disease, it spreads like fire and everyone believes it right away. People are very fast to spread fake news rather than an actual controlled study. Parents biggest worries are their children, so when they hear about one child getting sick, they stop trusting what has been actually helping their children.

To conclude, vaccines are biologically prepared by scientist. They are then tested in a controlled environment to make sure they are safe and do what they are meant to do. Vaccination hoaxes are spread all around the world. It all comes down to whether parents want to believe the hoax or do actual research on scientific studies.