Unfortunately, vaccines have become controversial among many parents. This is largely due to a now-discredited report from a doctor who claimed to find a link between autism and the MMR vaccine. Andrew Wakefield’s study was retracted from British medical journal The Lancet when it was discovered that it misrepresented or altered the medical histories of the 12 children in his study, as well as gathered the data through unethical practices, and had been helping to create a rival MMR vaccine that he hoped to launch after publishing his study. Wakefield was stripped of his medical license, but the damage was done. Parents began to fear vaccines, even though they are proven safe and extremely effective. Vaccination rates dropped, and diseases that had nearly been eradicated began to make a comeback.
This is truly a shame, as vaccines have saved countless lives. Polio, for example, has been completely eradicated from the United States since the 1970s, thanks to the polio vaccine, of the greatest achievements in medical history. Smallpox is another example of a disease that vaccines eliminated. But as vaccinations have decreased, other diseases have returned.
Both measles and whooping cough have made a terrifying resurgence as vaccination rates dropped. Part of the problem is that many parents underestimate the seriousness of many vaccine-preventable diseases. Measles is not just a virus that causes a harmless rash and fever; it can cause pneumonia, bronchitis, brain inflammation, blindness, and death. Globally, measles is still a leading cause of both blindness and death of children. Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease that is easily fatal in infants who are too young to be vaccinated. This highlights the need to keep herd immunity high — if enough people in a community get vaccinated (usually around 95%), then the disease cannot spread, and the few people unable to get vaccinated due to age or illness can still be protected. Unfortunately, falling vaccination rates have crippled herd immunity and allowed diseases like measles and whooping cough to make a deadly comeback.
Just a few years ago, a measles outbreak happened at Disneyland in California — 147 people were infected in half a dozen states, and most of the victims had not been vaccinated. Officials found that low vaccination rates allowed the outbreak to flourish and spread. Communities with low vaccination rates are also frequently found to have higher rates of vaccine-preventable diseases. Take California, a state with some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. In 2014, a record number of parents refused vaccines due to “personal belief” exemptions. What followed was the highest number of measles cases since 1995, and the highest number of whooping cough cases since 1947.
It is vital that parents vaccinate their children. Not only can it save the lives of your own babies, but it can save the lives of countless others — the elderly, children battling cancer, pregnant women, etc. — by encouraging herd immunity as well. Thanks to vaccines, the CDC estimates that 20 million cases of disease and 42,000 deaths are prevented. Vaccines are safe, they are effective, and they can keep your children safe and healthy from diseases that can be prevented.
For more information on National Infant Immunization Week, visit the CDC website.
