When I was younger, I always dreaded going for a checkup at the doctor’s office. Waiting around was boring and procedures were tedious. The worst part for me, however, was always getting shots. The needle scared me and the shot hurt. As a little kid, I didn’t understand why I had to get shots, and why I had to keep getting them year after year. I had no idea how important those shots were, and would continue to be. When I walked out of the doctor’s office after an appointment, I left with more than a sore arm and a sticker. I walked away with a stronger immune system and a healthier future.
The immune system is an important and complex part of the human body, guarding it against bacteria and other pathogens that could make us sick. When we are born, our immune systems are highly susceptible to diseases because our bodies don’t know how to fight them yet. Vaccinations help to strengthen our immune systems by introducing weakened or dead versions of a disease to the body. Antibodies then attack the disease. This helps to protect us from the real, potentially harmful disease in the future because our bodies will recognize the disease if they ever encounter it again, allowing the white blood cells to destroy it before it does any harm.
Keeping yourself healthy is important, but getting vaccinated isn’t just beneficial on a personal level. Vaccines are instrumental for the well-being of entire communities. It’s much harder for a disease to spread if everyone’s immune system has built up a defense against it. The community protection created by a large number of vaccinated individuals is called “herd immunity.” Herd immunity is valuable to everyone, but it’s especially important for those who can’t be vaccinated. Those who can’t receive vaccinations due to medical reasons, like newborns and cancer patients, rely on herd immunity to stay healthy and safe. This is why those whooping cough public service announcements urge parents to get themselves vaccinated against whooping cough. Newborns can’t get the vaccine, but are protected by the "shield" that vaccinated adults create. Adults who aren’t vaccinated pose a significant risk to these babies because whooping cough isn’t that detectable in adults and they can easily pass it on. Steven Weinreb, who underwent chemotherapy and depends on herd immunity, likens getting vaccinated to paying taxes; it’s “just another important societal responsibility” (Weinreb).
With the obvious health benefits, you’d think that everyone would be making sure to get themselves and their kids vaccinated. Unfortunately, a growing number of people are speaking out against vaccines. This is creating a problem across America. In his op-ed for the New York Times in November of 2015, Saad B. Omer talks about an outbreak of “measles cases -- a record 644 last year, and 102 last month” (Omer). This is especially alarming given that “the disease was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000” (Omer). The reasoning for skipping out on vaccines range from a variety of different reasons, but the most prevalent is the belief that vaccines cause autism.
The belief that vaccinations lead to the development of autism is rampant, and a strong deterrent against vaccines. The autism myth has somehow continued to gain support from celebrities and public figures, like Jenny McCarthy. She blamed vaccinations for her son’s autism. She "confirmed" her suspicions with a Google search rather than listen to her doctor, who told her “that Evan’s autism was the result of excess yeast” (Katz). McCarthy has gained substantial support despite her argument’s reliance on scientific inaccuracies. Her insistence in the link frightens parents away from important vaccinations.
The supposed link was first widely introduced in 1998 when a medical health journal published a study done by Andrew Wakefield. Wakefield claimed that he had found evidence of vaccinations causing inflammation in the stomach lining. According to the study, the inflammation makes its way to the brain, which leads to the development of autism. This caused a significant fear of vaccines throughout the public. It was later found that the study used skewed data and was retracted by a majority of its authors. Although the study was discredited, people still use it as "evidence" to prove that vaccines cause autism.
The prevalence of this myth and the fear it continues to perpetuate is baffling. This myth is continuously disproven, yet it still has a strong influence on parents’ decisions on whether or not to vaccinate their kids. If you research this topic, you can find numerous credible sources denouncing the link between autism and vaccinations. These peer-reviewed articles and/or data backed studies detail many scientific inaccuracies the myth contains. There isn’t a single credible source promoting the link between autism and vaccines. Most information supporting the myth online is found on blogs or dubious websites. Some of these sources build their argument by trying to create a relationship between the increase in vaccination rates and a number of autism cases. These sources jump to the conclusion that vaccinations must have caused the rise in autism cases since they both increase. Anyone who has taken a basic statistic class, however, can tell you that correlation does not imply causation. Most scientists credit the rise in autism cases to “expanded diagnostic criteria, more awareness of the disorder, diagnosis at earlier ages, and the recognition that ASD is a lifelong condition” (Matson).
Vaccinations were created for a reason and have been instrumental in eliminating disease and protecting the population. If you look back at where we’ve come from, you can see how much of a difference vaccinations have made. Smallpox, for example, killed “An estimated 300 million people...in the 20th century alone” (Flight), and now it’s eradicated, thanks to vaccines. Vaccinations have saved countless lives, and will continue to do so, yet people are still passing them up. The biggest problem here is a lack of information. Everyone who goes to obtain a nonmedical exemption should be educated on what vaccinations do and the risks of passing them up. There will still be people who will refuse vaccinations, but there will also be people who realize the importance of vaccinating. Even if it’s just a small percent, every vaccination counts when building up herd immunity, and keeping the community safe from disease.
