The concept of opposing vaccinations, being anti-vaccination, for young children for numerous reasons has been around since before vaccines themselves, but the ramifications are significant. Unfortunately, many who oppose vaccinations do so out of belief in a false narrative: vaccines cause autism. Although this claim was debunked in the early 2000s, anti-vaxxers still believe in the correlation between the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and autism. This presents an ongoing battle between health care providers and parents, who choose not to vaccinate their children despite no evidence to back up their claims.
Currently, there is a surge in measles sweeping across Europe which has sparked alarms in the global community. As these cases spread across the world, untold dangers lie ahead. Within the first six months of 2018, 41,000 people in Europe were infected compared to around 23,000 in 2017 and only about 5,000 in 2016. For the most part, this resurgence of measles is caused by a decline in the MMR vaccine globally and the ease of transmitting the disease.
Essentially, the greatest risk of opposing vaccines for children is the risk of increased susceptibility later in life. Moreover, today's travel patterns pose additional risks for increased chances of infection and transmission.
Healthcare providers do their best to reassure parents of the safety and legitimacy of vaccines and ensure their safety on a one-to-one basis, but this message is not resonating on a global level. Concerns about vaccinations live online. Social media has been the perfect conduit for the spreading of false information without legitimate data or input from experts. It's easy to get sucked into a wormhole of others' experiences and convince yourself their claims are the truth. Social media lives online and thus lives globally and has the power to spread. Anti-vaxxers have infiltrated European cities and it will keep spreading from there.
This trend proves the hold social media and word-of-mouth information can have over someone's decisions. Just hearing about a negative experience turns many parents off to vaccines. The internet then provides a bubble of anti-vaccine information on which they can rely, but not listen or read opposing information.
