by Serena H.
‘Vaccinate your crotch goblins!’ It’s a funny phrase with a serious meaning. There has been a heavy movement in society, by people who oppose vaccines, to stop vaccinating children. The movement started with terribly unreliable and invalid research and has snowballed into causing outbreaks of preventable diseases.
The anti-vaccination movement has been highly based off the idea that there is a link between vaccinations, specifically the MMR vaccine, causing autism. An article by AJ Wakefield from 1998, that was later retracted, studied this link and found it to be true. The study has too small of a sample and has been found to have falsified research, thus entirely unreliable from a scientific perspective. Wakefield later lost his license to practice medicine in the UK due to this fraudulent research.
With that in mind, there are continuing studies on this link and they are continuing to debunk this hypothesis. Anders Hviid, Jørgen Vinsløv Hansen, Morten Frisch, and Mads Melbyei recently published a new longitudinal study regarding the effects of the MMR vaccine. It has over 600,000 participants, a much more reliable number, and uses assessments of the vaccine effects among other things. They found that the MMR vaccine has no influence on increasing the likelihood of autism or causing it in any way.
The research makes the choice pretty clear for me, but for others it is still a gray area. I have heard numerous arguments from the anti-vax group. One of the biggest being ‘my kid can’t be vaccinated and I should be forced to do it.’ To an extent, I and most doctors would agree. If you child cannot be vaccinated, whether it be due to and immune system disorder or allergic reactions, they should not be. That’s why herd immunity exists. It is to protect the people who cannot be vaccinated form these life threatening, preventable diseases. The issue is that these parents are joining a movement that harms their child. It is affecting herd immunity in the worst way.
There have been multiple outbreaks with MMR just in the past year. Washing State had an outbreak reported by the Department of Health that has 72 confirmed cases of measles. Indiana University is now facing a mumps outbreak. Both of these diseases were mostly exterminated in America, due to our herd immunity, but now we have people not vaccinating and risking more lives due to a fear of autism.
Many people have argued that they have done the research to make their choice, but there are some issues with that. I am a strong believer of information is not knowledge. Just because you can google the information does not mean you can fully understand it and be knowledgeable in all the aspects of that one thing. There are issues with people relying on research that they can’t understand or don’t fully know how to analyze it for reliability and validity. There is also an issue with confirmation bias. When you go googling, you are likely to search for things that align with the opinion you want to support, rather than an unbiased, scientific research. A quick google search WebMD cannot give you the same level of knowledge that years studying and practicing medicine can. The internet and news cannot give you the same level of knowledge in assessing good versus bad research. Doctors are trained in this field and have to keep up with research to best provide for their patients and do their job to the best of their ability. Get more than one opinion if you want, but consult a doctor when it comes to vaccines.
I get that some side effects can be scary but vaccines are for the benefit of everyone and save lives. Find a doctor that you can trust and that listens to your opinions and wants as a patient, but do not assume you know more about medicine. Vaccines are a big deal. They should not be required for everyone because not everyone can take them safely, but if you can be vaccinated, you need to be.