In 1798, Edward Jenner made an interesting observation. At a time where smallpox was rampant, he noticed that milkmaids who had gotten the disease before did not get it again. So, he did the unthinkable. He scraped the pus of sick cows onto his family members’ skin, and luckily, they did not catch smallpox. Despite its effectiveness, he was met with outrage from people in his community. This was the birth of the anti-vaxxer movement.
Vaccines are a revolutionary medical tool . They contain weakened pathogens of a virus to trigger the body into creating antibodies. The pathogen is weak, so the antibodies disperse and memory cells store them for use if the body was to contact the illness again. Since vaccines essentially infect you with the disease, parents are allowed exemptions for their children in order to stop their child from getting vaccinated. Religious exemptions are used when receiving a vaccination is against one’s religion. Philosophical exemptions are used when a vaccine interferes with a parents’ personal beliefs. Medical exemptions are used when a child has a medical issue that prevents them from receiving a vaccination, such as children going through chemotherapy or children with autoimmune diseases. States should do away with non-medical exemptions and require parents to vaccinate their children.
The main issue with parents opting their children out of receiving vaccines is the spread of misinformation. Parents who do their own research sometimes find things that will alarm them and cause them to delay their child’s vaccination schedule, or stop their child from getting vaccines altogether. A lot of the things that raises their concern is not entirely accurate, and some arguments have been completely disproved. It is the job of a doctor to share information with a patient’s family to avoid any confusion. That way, parents are aware of what is going on and they do not try and refuse an exemption. Medical exemptions should be the only exemptions allowed so parents do not put their child and others at risk because of their misinformation.
The benefits of immunizing your child outweigh the risks. For starters, the diseases that are vaccinated for have vaccines for a reason. They are dangerous childhood illnesses that can have grave effects like paralyzation, and even death. Thankfully, with the the development of vaccines, we have lived without ever coming into contact with these illnesses. To ensure their safety, vaccines are constantly monitored when they are put out on the market.
Despite being so amazing though, naturally acquired immunity is stronger than vaccinations. According to the World Health Organization, depending on the person, vaccines are only 85%-95% effective. Naturally acquired immunity ensures that the person cannot get the disease again. Further, in some cases, such as the measles outbreak in California in 2014-15, some of the infected population included people who got the measles vaccination. However, the risks of getting natural immunity can be worse than any effect of a vaccine. It works, but only if the person survives the disease. Vaccines are created to tackle illnesses that have show grave effects on society, like measles which claimed the lives of many at its peak. Attempting natural immunity not only puts your child at a great risk, it risks spreading the disease to others.
Vaccines contain ingredients some are not comfortable with injecting into their child. These include aluminum, thimerosal, and formaldehyde. The concern is around the dosages being administered to infants. However, there is not enough of these chemicals in vaccines to cause any complications despite the number of vaccines administered. The dosage is negligible, meaning close to zero, and designed to be safe for people of all ages. Vaccines go through years of testing and are monitored while on the market to ensure their safety, and these components have not shown any health risks.
Aluminum is used as an adjuvant in vaccines, which boosts the body’s immune response to the vaccination. Aluminum can be dangerous in large enough doses and cause bone, brain, and lung diseases. According to the U.S Food and Drug Administration, aluminum in vaccines have been safe for over six decades, and a study by the FDA “determined that the risk to infants posed by the total aluminum exposure… is extremely low.” In fact, infants are exposed to more aluminum in their first 6 months than they are in one vaccination. Formaldehyde can also be dangerous because it can change someone’s DNA and cause cancer. But like aluminum, the dosage is important because it is only dangerous in high amounts. Further, it is produced naturally in the body in numbers greater than what is contained in vaccines. The FDA also states that people are at a higher risk at contracting cancer from formaldehyde when it is breathed in. Thimerosal is used as a preservative in vaccines. It is a mercury containing compound, which is alarming. Mercury is infamous for how ill it can make someone, and having something that is known to be dangerous be put in vaccines sets a lot of people off. The thing is, mercury found in fish, methylmercury, is different from mercury in vaccines, which is ethylmercury. The body processes ethylmercury at a faster rate and does not accumulate in the body unlike methylmercury. And due to the public’s discontent, it was removed from vaccines. The only vaccine that still contains it is the influenza vaccine, and thimerosal-free options are available.
Another concern around the ingredients is around the reactions it can cause. Reactions range from mild to adverse (severe). Mild side effects are common and treatable. These include fevers and rashes. The fear lies in the more adverse effects. The likelihood of someone having an adverse reaction is around one in one to two million, and many people fear that their child may fall into that statistic. Cases recorded by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) include effects like encephalitis and death after the administration of a vaccination. However, some of these cases are purely coincidental. According to historyofvaccines.org, “Not all adverse effects reported to VAERS are in fact caused by a vaccination. The two occurrences may be related in time only.” The likelihood of a child contracting a vaccine preventable disease and suffering from it is much greater than a child getting an adverse effect receiving a vaccine.
Some people argue that these diseases have been eradicated in the United States, but the World Health Organization states that diseases like measles that have been eradicated exist in other areas. Travelers who are infected pose a danger to those who are not vaccinated. The CDC states, “The most frequent sources of importations were unvaccinated U.S. travelers returning from abroad, with subsequent transmissions among clusters of unvaccinated persons.” An example of this is an outbreak in Ohio from missionaries traveling back from the Philippines, where measles had not been eradicated.
Outbreaks such as this one are linked to an idea known as herd immunity. Individuals who cannot get vaccinated, like newborn babies, the elderly, and the ill rely on herd immunity to keep themselves safe. The idea is that if a certain percentage of the population is vaccinated, it is harder for the illness to circulate. But if the percentage of vaccinated individuals falls below the threshold, the illness spreads rapidly. For measles, 93-95% of the population is required to be vaccinated to keep the disease contained. In Brooklyn where there is an ongoing outbreak, the vaccination rates of the Orthodox Jewish community is below the 93-95% threshold. Tyler Pager and Jeffery Mays from The New York Times state “…there have been 285 confirmed cases since the outbreak began in the fall; 21 of those cases led to hospitalizations, including five admissions to the intensive care unit.” In this case and others like it, communities who do not have the needed vaccination rates will experience larger outbreaks that spread faster. This is dangerous for those who rely on herd immunity.
At the end of the day, parents just want what is best for their child. But if it involves not vaccinating, it does not seem like the best of options. Vaccines have been around for decades and have shown significant results. We live in a place where the majority has never come into contact with these illnesses and it should stay that way. It is completely understandable why parents would be weary of vaccines, but it just comes down to picking the safest option for your child as well as everyone else. It might seem unfair to vaccinate your child for the greater good of the community, but opting out of vaccinating a child does not just affect the child, it affects anyone they come into contact with who has not been vaccinated. By eliminating all exceptions except medical, we can ensure that those who are unable to get vaccinated are protected by herd immunity. Without it, they would be exposed to diseases their body will not be able to fight off. Eliminating non-medical exemptions can keep our community safe.
