Vaccines: What’s the Deal?

The World Health Organization has published data regarding misconceptions in the language of anti-vaxxing claims. One of the misconceptions is that diseases that use vaccines have diminished in occurrence because of hygiene and sanitation. The WHO gives evidence that directly goes against this claim. By following the incidences of commonly vaccinated diseases like the measles, there have been fluctuations of occurrences throughout the past decades however there is a stark drop in measles cases after the establishment of the vaccine in 1963. This trend is apparent for other diseases too. Regarding sanitation, there are diseases such as Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) that have only begun to have a vaccine for infants developed within decades that have the same sanitation precautions as today. For example, the Hib vaccine for infants wasn’t developed until the mid 1990s, and there has been a significant drop in the disease for those vaccinated. Since hygiene practices in the 90s are relatively similar to those now, this drop in disease can only be associated with vaccine rates. Also, when countries decide to not vaccinate for a disease out of fear of vaccination, there is a rapid spike in the rate of occurrences of that disease. This spike can only be attributed to a lack of vaccination.

Another misconception is that parents won’t vaccinate their children based on the idea that they feel that their child will not contract the disease because there are relatively few cases of disease. The unfortunate problem with this idea is that the whole reason why these parent’s children are unlikely to contract a disease is because of others vaccinating and an established herd immunity. However, as anti-vaxxing movement has increased momentum vaccine rates are lowering and herd immunity is beginning to dissipate. Now these unvaccinated children are spreading and contracting disease and giving it to children, and adults that wish they could be vaccinated but cannot because of other medical conditions or immune deficiencies that do not permit them to be vaccinated. This problem is especially concerning for newborns that are too young to receive vaccinations who may contract these diseases from being around unvaccinated children and then die. For example, in the US, there have been at least ten to twenty babies to die from whooping cough each year due to this anti-vaxxing problem.

Another misconception is that vaccines have unsafe chemicals and are not natural therefore they shouldn’t be introduced into your child’s body. People are concerned about vaccines that have trace levels of mercury or formaldehyde. While these chemicals are toxic to the body in certain levels, trace levels in the vaccine are not proven to be harmful. Additionally, vaccines are extensively tested and approved to make sure they are safe before they are even used on people. Another thing that people don’t understand regarding this issue is that our bodies metabolically make more formaldehyde than the levels that are in vaccines. It’s interesting to see what will happen to the anti-vaxxing movement and I worry about the future of public health that my potential kids may face one day.