Beware of the Anti-Vaxxers!

Taking a stand against vaccinations seems to be all the rage right now.

Recently, people who do not believe in vaccination, or “anti-vaxxers” as they are popularly called, have been the focus of mainstream media. Anti-vaxxers are propagators of the idea that vaccines are a big sham, often claiming that vaccines have several negative side effects—one of them being autism. They seem to be under the notion that by not vaccinating their children, parent’s will be doing a favor to their kids.

It doesn’t take a very intelligent person to understand that the anti-vaccine propaganda making the rounds these days is unfounded. 

Unfortunately, there seems to be a spike in parents not vaccinating their children presumably because they have fallen prey to the ideas the anti-vax movement is spewing. Anti-vaxxers believe that vaccines and vitamin supplements given to babies at their birth can lead to disabilities such as autism. However, there is little if any evidence to prove these claims. A famous paper written by Dr. Andrew Wakefield claimed that vaccines had a correlation to autism, and this source has been cited as evidence by many anti-vaxxers. However, their research seems to be poorly done as Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s paper was soon retracted because it was shown that the data was fabricated [precisionvaccines]. Pacific Standard, an American magazine which writes about social issues, says, “The attorneys representing parents in a lawsuit against measles vaccine manufacturers paid Wakefield to fabricate evidence showing that the vaccines were linked to autism.”

“If people don’t vaccinate themselves, they are not only a threat to others, but they’re also simply misinformed,” says sophomore Ishita A.

Many people were doubtful of vaccines when they started becoming popular more than 100 years ago. And understandably so, as injecting someone with strains of a dormant disease to protect them against said disease seemed a little counterintuitive. However, with more than 150 years of evidence as to the benefits of vaccines, parents in the 21st century don’t have an excuse to not vaccinate their children.

In an age where education is at an all-time high, birth rates have improved drastically, and death rates are low, people seem to be taking their life for granted. Not many people remember the early 1950’s when measles, mumps, rubella, and the flu took millions with them and scarred others for life. Vaccines, vitamins and other medicines have improved the situation to the point where people are no longer scared of dying from chicken pox. Not many people seem to remember how diseases ran rampant only a mere 60 years ago.

Vaccination rates in Europe have plummeted, and thousands of children are at risk of contracting extremely contagious diseases. Europe is facing a mini-epidemic with rubella, mumps, and measles making a comeback in areas where it was thought to have been eradicated. 83% percent of the kids that have been affected are unvaccinated [independant.co.uk].

These statistics prove a lot. Children who haven’t been vaccinated are in the minority, yet they are the majority of the kids who have contracted these diseases. WHO (World Health Organization) has said that the anti-vaccination movement is one of the worst health threats of 2019, and Pinterest has programmed their search engines to curb the spread of anti-vaccine propaganda. Measles, which had been almost eradicated in most countries has seen a 30% spike in cases reported, and while not all of these cases can be attributed to anti-vaxxers, a large number can be.

In order to resolve this issue, it needs to be looked at from its origin. Apart from being misinformed, people choose not to vaccinate their children because of a plethora of reasons ranging from religious beliefs, personal philosophies, and safety concerns. People with certain religious beliefs which bar them from vaccinating their children pose a problem. There is a fine line between offending someone’s religious beliefs, and it’s hard to stray away from it in terms of this issue. However, people who have such religious beliefs cannot be exempted, otherwise, we are back at square one.

Chhavi K. feels, “Health and religion can’t be put together, and don’t depend on each other in any way.” She further goes on to say, “It’s not logical to exempt people from getting vaccines because of their religion because it harms thousands and thousands of people.”

Opting out of vaccines puts the greater population at risk. Many anti-vaxxers claim that since the people around them are vaccinated, they pose no risk to others. But there are several reasons as to why these claims are untrue. Babies who are too young to get vaccinations are susceptible to contracting diseases from un-vaccinated people because they are exposed at the hospital. People who have compromised immune systems such as people suffering from cancer can also be at risk of contraction. However anti-vaxxers feel that it is beneficial for children to contract preventable diseases as they feel that immunity built naturally is more helpful than immunity through vaccines.

Christel L, says that she “understands where [anti-vaxxers] are coming from.” She says that she hasn’t gotten any vaccines since 2013 because she feels that “they sometimes don’t work.”

Most people feel that parents shouldn’t have the right to object to having their kids vaccinated. They feel that apart from putting their own kids at peril they also risk the health of other kids in the community. They feel that these other kids have not given consent to being placed in such a dangerous environment. Personally, I agree with the fact that each individual has the right to live their life the way they want, as long as their actions don’t have negative consequences for others. In this case, however, anti-vaxxers pose a serious threat to others, and solutions must be come up with in order to resolve this issue.