In the 1998 study, incorrect scientific techniques were used by Wakefield to generate the results that seemed to link autism and GI disorder. Not only was Wakefield stirring up the scientific community by creating false positive results for his Autism Omnibus testimony, but he was poking at the ethical side of research by irresponsibility going about his scientific fraud. Little known, Wakefield was hired by high-end lawyers that were dealing with alleged vaccine injury cases. Sixteen years after the original paper, almost every bit of his argument can be refuted and the diagnoses of his flaws almost seem unnecessary.…
The first pressing reason to vaccinate children is to prevent them from contracting diseases. It can hardly be argued that immunizations fail to protect the majority of children from getting the infection the immunization was designed to prevent. In the 18th century, for example, hundreds of thousands of Americans were infected by a crippling condition called polio. Polio was a terrible infection that caused sufferers to lose the use of their legs. Many had to walk with braces or crutches. Some lost the ability to walk and had to be placed in wheelchairs, while others were so disabled they became unable to engage in any physical activity, or even died of the condition. Polio was so prevalent it even affected American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Schnell 2)! Thanks to vaccinations, today polio is all but unheard of in the USA, and in other countries that immunize against it. This example alone should show the desirability of immunization. Who…
In 2010, the study that sparked the anti-vaccine movement was fully retracted from the journal which published it as a result of its author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, being found to have a massive conflict of interest, amidst other ethical issues. Dr. Wakefield was employed by lawyers suing over alleged vaccine injuries (Novella, 2010). For the purpose of money, Dr. Wakefield sparked a worldwide debate over the legitimacy of vaccines as a whole, and has caused the deaths of thousands by proxy. The misinformed parent isn’t the victim, they were vaccinated and protected, the one suffering is the child whose parents feared autism more than measles. The Measles Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine is a beneficial form of treatment and any links to autism…
Just like a law or bill voted down in congress sometimes the vaccinations themselves may have no real cause, reason or greatly beneficial factors to be mandated in the first place. “A vaccine that offers incomplete protection against a virus, and in turn, for a disease that is classified as ‘‘rare’’ in the United States and that may, in fact, never develop at all as a pathological condition, constitutes…
One of the controversial/hot topics or issues nowadays in health care in the US and the world as a whole is vaccination. The main purpose of vaccines is to control and prevent communicable diseases. The target is to vaccinate about 99 percent of the population. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “about 1.5 million children under age 5 years continue to die annually from diseases that are preventable via the administration of vaccines, making up approximately 20 percent of overall childhood mortality” (Maternal and Child Health, n.d). The WHO continues to argue with evidence that vaccination can prevent death from pneumonia and diarrhea which are the leading cost of death among children under five years old. Although vaccination…
Imagine living with smallpox, rabies, polio, and other fatal diseases running rampant. Imagine the fear instilled in daily life because of those diseases and that there are no cures or prevention methods. Fortunately, we live in a time with vaccinations. Vaccines save millions of lives each year, have eradicated smallpox disease, and substantially lessened the chance of contracting other diseases. Vaccines are considered to be one of the greatest medical achievements. However, whether to vaccinate or not is a steadily growing debate, as there are no US federal laws mandating vaccination, certain vaccines are required for public school with a few exemptions, parents ultimately have the choice whether to vaccinate or not. Although, vaccinations…
My first point is that there are reasons we have vaccines. Vaccines can keep you healthy, keep you from a life or death situation, the diseases that vaccines prevent are normally expensive to care for once you get them, anyone around you is at risk of getting sick, vaccines are safe, the diseases they prevent aren’t gone, and they are important to your health. Without vaccines, many more illnesses would still be common and a lot more people would be sick. Things like polio, which have been wiped out in the United States, would still be around and still harming the nation.…
Certain things that we encounter in life, have hidden dangers, while others only look scary at first glance and turn out to be quite positive. It is because of these types of things that many people become confused when it comes to making life altering decisions, such as being vaccinated. While many think of vaccines as harmful and dangerous, they are in fact safe and essential for stopping the spread of life threatening diseases, and therefore should be mandatory.…
Medical phenomena are subject to questioning, leading to controversy based upon the adverse effects of medical treatments such as vaccinations that may lead to further ailment. Due to a study done in 1998 by The Lancet that published a correlation between the MMR vaccination and autism, a large debate has ensued. Based upon the principles of fear, parents have chosen to "protect" their children by not having them vaccinated. In an effort to make a stance on an issue that is based upon false principles, it is necessary to understand the study done by The Lancet, the purpose of the vaccination…
Vaccines are responsible for minimizing the risk of many deadly diseases and even eradicating some completely. People today are privileged enough to live during a time where the fear of dying from a disease like measles or smallpox is negligible. Even so vaccines are not without dissenters. There is a segment of humanity that believes there is a credible association between vaccines and rising autism rates. The following articles will show that there are varying ideas on the best way to disprove vaccination opponents, yet no solid solution has been reached on how to convince vaccination opponents that their fears are unfounded.…
The fight against vaccines has become controversial however arguments against mass immunization should be evaluated so that a good understanding of this controversy can be had. There are three main arguments against the mass immunization of children and babies. Firstly, It is argued that vaccinations can have harmful side effects on children. Secondly, it is argued that laws requiring mandatory vaccinations infringe upon an individual’s liberty and freedom of choice; and finally, mass immunizations a law, violates religious freedom. According to Omer et al (2009) approximately 69% of parents are more concerned that vaccines could cause harm to the health of their young children than they are with the other issues. The CDC does, in fact, publish that vaccines may have side effects for example a reaction to the varicella vaccine can range from a rash to a severe infection (CDC, 2010). No specific evidence exist, however, to support the claim that vaccines predispose children to other disease such as type 1…
Being vaccinated is extremely critical and important to one’s health, but due to false information being spread about vaccines, many guardians of children opt out to having the children vaccinated for fear of the child developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The reason for guardians not vaccinating their children due to the result of a false study done by Andrew Wakefield that manipulated and/or misrepresented the twelve patients who were involved with the study in 1998 (Hagan). This is the reason why guardians have been avoiding getting their children vaccinated, causing a comeback on a few diseases. Mr. Wakefield has had his medical license revoked, and his paper has been discredited by a large community of scientists. Although there has…
In the journal article, Vaccinations and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses, the authors Jeffery S. Gerber and Paul A. Offit start by stating three proposed hypotheses for reasons behind why vaccinations might cause autism.…
the argument that vaccinations cause autism is one of ignorance. It was said that the ingredient thimerosal was the link to autism. Studies show that even after thimerosal was removed in 1992 autism continued to increase. This shows that thimerosal has no causation or correlation with autism. The rise in autism correlates directly with the fact that autism is being more easily identified and has a wider…
After reading the article and watching the videos regarding Wakefield’s autism study, I think that the Lancet was justified in retracting Wakefield’s research paper. Firstly, Wakefield consistently changed the participants’ medical histories to support his hypothesis that MMR vaccines will induce the likelihood of autism and bowel disease. His action was very unprofessional and despicable because scientific discovery should be based on actual evidence; however, in this case, the evidence that Wakefield used were mainly fabricated data. After obtaining the initial clinical reports and observations of the study, the committee found out that none of the information mentioned in the study in regards to the MMR vaccines correlate with the actual…