Why should we discuss childhood vaccination rates?
The advent of vaccines revolutionized health care, preventing deadly diseases from annihilating populations across the globe. In the United States, which has relatively high vaccination rates, diseases such as diphtheria, measles, polio, and whopping cough no longer plague communities. These vaccines are highly effective, but this efficacy also leads many parents not to consider these diseases as major threats to the health of their children.
Parents across the United States are choosing not to vaccinate their children, mostly out of concern of autism, or overwhelming their young immune systems, according to Paul Offit. The Internet has certainly not helped the situation, continuing the spread of misinformation and pseudoscience to parents researching vaccines in order to make the decision to vaccine or not to vaccine their children. A simply Internet search of “childhood vaccine safety” will result in pages of forums for concerned parents, holistic medicine websites, and anti-vaccine websites bordering on conspiracy theories. All of these sources propagate anti-vaccine sentiments among parents. Parents are naturally concerned for the health of their children, and it is difficult for parents to obtain user-friendly, scientifically-accurate information in favor of vaccines. Parents are left confused and afraid about the side-effects of vaccines, leading many to not vaccinate their children at all.
This phenomenon of completely unvaccinated children is a serious public health concern. When an increasing number of parents choose not to vaccinate their children, communities lose herd immunity against vaccine-preventable diseases. Outbreaks of these diseases, such as measles and whooping cough, are occurring in pockets of the United States with declining childhood vaccination rates. The choice of a parent not to vaccinate their children has serious implications for community health. The United States will see a resurgence of these deadly diseases if this trend of low childhood vaccination rates continues.
Why should we address the issue of low childhood vaccination rates?
Declining childhood vaccination rates should be viewed as a critical health problem, which will affect all American families if rates continue to decline. In the last decade, parents have increasingly become worried about the safety of vaccines, mainly due to a published article supposedly linking the measles vaccine to the onset of autism spectrum disorders in young children. This infamous “Wakefield Paper” has been repeatedly disproved by scientists in the United States and Britain, but the paper planted the seed in many parents’ minds that vaccines might not be as safe as the government and pharmaceutical companies claim. As a result, anti-vaccine groups have gained traction across the United States, constantly questioning the safety and efficacy of vaccines. A little scientific competition and criticism is never a bad thing, but these groups have spread misinformation and anti-vaccine sentiment, leading parents to accept these statements as truth, distrusting the scientists and medical establishments.
The argument in favor of childhood vaccinations must take place, so that parents can have access to true, scientific information that is not based on sensationalism and sentiment. Parents must be given accurate information in order to make wholly educated decisions, in hopes of increasing vaccination rates to combat these vaccine-preventable diseases. If a counterargument against anti-vaccine opinions is not raised, the United States runs the risk of falling into a state of disease, reflective of a time when vaccines did not exist.
The advent of vaccines revolutionized health care, preventing deadly diseases from annihilating populations across the globe. In the United States, which has relatively high vaccination rates, diseases such as diphtheria, measles, polio, and whopping cough no longer plague communities. These vaccines are highly effective, but this efficacy also leads many parents not to consider these diseases as major threats to the health of their children.
Parents across the United States are choosing not to vaccinate their children, mostly out of concern of autism, or overwhelming their young immune systems, according to Paul Offit. The Internet has certainly not helped the situation, continuing the spread of misinformation and pseudoscience to parents researching vaccines in order to make the decision to vaccine or not to vaccine their children. A simply Internet search of “childhood vaccine safety” will result in pages of forums for concerned parents, holistic medicine websites, and anti-vaccine websites bordering on conspiracy theories. All of these sources propagate anti-vaccine sentiments among parents. Parents are naturally concerned for the health of their children, and it is difficult for parents to obtain user-friendly, scientifically-accurate information in favor of vaccines. Parents are left confused and afraid about the side-effects of vaccines, leading many to not vaccinate their children at all.
This phenomenon of completely unvaccinated children is a serious public health concern. When an increasing number of parents choose not to vaccinate their children, communities lose herd immunity against vaccine-preventable diseases. Outbreaks of these diseases, such as measles and whooping cough, are occurring in pockets of the United States with declining childhood vaccination rates. The choice of a parent not to vaccinate their children has serious implications for community health. The United States will see a resurgence of these deadly diseases if this trend of low childhood vaccination rates continues.
Why should we address the issue of low childhood vaccination rates?
Declining childhood vaccination rates should be viewed as a critical health problem, which will affect all American families if rates continue to decline. In the last decade, parents have increasingly become worried about the safety of vaccines, mainly due to a published article supposedly linking the measles vaccine to the onset of autism spectrum disorders in young children. This infamous “Wakefield Paper” has been repeatedly disproved by scientists in the United States and Britain, but the paper planted the seed in many parents’ minds that vaccines might not be as safe as the government and pharmaceutical companies claim. As a result, anti-vaccine groups have gained traction across the United States, constantly questioning the safety and efficacy of vaccines. A little scientific competition and criticism is never a bad thing, but these groups have spread misinformation and anti-vaccine sentiment, leading parents to accept these statements as truth, distrusting the scientists and medical establishments.
The argument in favor of childhood vaccinations must take place, so that parents can have access to true, scientific information that is not based on sensationalism and sentiment. Parents must be given accurate information in order to make wholly educated decisions, in hopes of increasing vaccination rates to combat these vaccine-preventable diseases. If a counterargument against anti-vaccine opinions is not raised, the United States runs the risk of falling into a state of disease, reflective of a time when vaccines did not exist.