Ultimately the decision to vaccinate their children resides with the parents but most doctors, medical experts and governments highly recommend immunisation as it has proved to be an effective tool in combating infectious diseases in the past.
For
- Protects us from potentially dangerous diseases
The main aim of a Vaccine is to protect from diseases and this is done by the method that I have described in my Introduction.
“The national immunisation programme has meant that dangerous diseases such as Polio have disappeared in the UK” [1]
This point doesn’t support the actual safety of Vaccines themselves but shows that they do have benefits and the benefit here is that it can protect you from potentially life threatening diseases.
- Many diseases have been eradicated by Vaccinations
One example of a disease that has been totally been eradicated is Smallpox which was a life threatening disease for hundreds of years.
“In the 1950’s there were 50 million cases worldwide” [2] but as a result of a global “campaign to wipe out smallpox” [2] by the WHO in 1967, the disease has now been totally eradicated and the last recorded case was recorded in Somalia during 1977
This proves that it was much safer to be vaccinated rather than run the risk of catching Smallpox especially if you lived in an area that has been affected by the disease as it was potentially fatal and the risk of a fatality from the vaccine was extremely lower than the risk of a fatality from the disease itself.
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“As with all new medicines, all vaccines are extensively tested for safety before they're made routinely available to the general public”[2]
This quote is from the NHS website so you can assume that it is reliable, it tells you that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) try to ensure to their upmost that the vaccines that they approve are indeed safe for the public and they also collect information about the vaccine including the suspected side effects via the Yellow Card scheme, this shows that they are not ignoring that there are potential side effects and are studying the exact causes of these and are trying to find workarounds
- Giving the vaccines separately means that the risk of infection is higher
This point refers to the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine specifically which immunises against 3 infections/diseases at once. This means that 3 dead/weakened viruses are injected at once so it is argued that the body is under more strain to find antibodies all at once. Some people also think that giving the MMR vaccine rather than 3 separate diseases increases the risk of Autism (for reasons that I will discuss later in this section)
“Giving the vaccines separately at intervals means that children are not protected a disease at the earliest possible time” [3]
This means that an inconvenience will be caused for both the parents in transporting their child to the hospital to get each vaccine and it will cause more distress toward the child receiving the vaccine too. But since the child isn’t protected from the infections as early as possible, the risk of infection is slightly increased.
- Many studies have claimed that the MMR vaccine is safe and the link to Autism is false
Dr. Liam Smeeth, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine conducted an investigation involving 5,000 children and the results were as follows “78% of the children with Autism or a PDD had received MMR, similarly, 82% of the other children had been given MMR” [4]. According to Dr. Smeeth this 4% difference “was not significant” [4].
This suggests that the MMR vaccine is safe and a study has been undertaken by a scientist to back its safety and upon further inspection I discovered that Dr. Smeeth has been working at the LSHTM since 1999 and the LSHTM is widely acknowledged as a very reliable source and according to Wikipedia “The School's mission is to contribute to the improvement of health worldwide through the pursuit of excellence in research, postgraduate teaching and advanced training in national and international public health and tropical medicine, and through informing policy and practice in these areas.”
- Surely preventing a disease occurring in the first place is better than taking the risk of catching the infection later and having long lasting side effects.
- The evidence that claimed that MMR had link to Autism was later proved to be false
In 1998 Dr Andrew Wakefield published a paper linking MMR with Autism in a respected medical journal, The Lancet. It linked the two based on a study of 12 children over a period of time. This paper was initially accepted as proof of a link and vaccination rates dropped significantly but then Dr. Wakefield was convicted of fraud and the paper was proved to be false and Dr. Wakefield was stripped of his medical license as it was found out that he was taking bribes from a law firm seeking evidence against vaccine manufacturers. As a result of this “thousands of children weren’t vaccinated, hundreds were hospitalized and four died” [5].
The fact that the study was only undertaken on 12 children also hampers its reliability as this is not considered a big enough sample to conduct a study on.
This supports the safety of the MMR vaccine as it shows that the evidence against it was fabricated and many other scientist have not been able to reproduce his results, According to the British Medical Journal (BMJ) “Wakefield has been unable to reproduce his results in the face of criticism, and other researchers have been unable to match them.” [7] And “Wakefield received more than 435,000 pounds ($674,000) from the lawyers” [7]
- In many countries the results have shown that when Vaccines were introduced, the amount of cases of the respective diseases has drastically declines
A great example of this would be in Canada where the Public health agency claim the following results
This clearly shows that the Vaccines that were introduced the amount of diseases declined.
Against
In 1999 the CDC and the AAP asked vaccine manufacturers to remove the compound Thiomersal from vaccines as they claimed that it had a link to Autism [6]
This suggests that the compound was linked to Autism but according to Wikipedia “Multiple studies have been performed on data from large populations of children to study the relationship between the use of vaccines containing Thiomersal, and autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Almost all of these studies have found no association between Thiomersal-containing vaccines (TCVs) and autism” and not all vaccines contain the compound either so it only affects certain vaccines.
- Although the risk is small, there is still a risk present
According to the CDC.gov website, potential (but extremely rare) side effects include “long term seizures” or “permanent brain damage”, this should be very reliable as it is a government source that is pro immunisation but as we can see is not hiding the facts. Former director of the CDC, Julia Gerberding admitted on CNN that vaccines can trigger symptoms that “have the characteristics of Autism”
This means that vaccines are not 100% safe and probably never will be considering how they work but the risk has to be accepted and assessed as it is kept as low as possible.
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According to Vaccineinfo.net “7 vaccines (polio, hepatitis A, varicella, pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, and haemophilus influenzae b) have NOT been "evaluated or tested for their carcinogenic potential, mutagenic potential, or for impairment of fertility" or "reproductive capacity" according the vaccine manufacturers' own product inserts.”[8] This means that not enough care has been taken in testing for the potential long term side effects of the vaccine and it could be harmful. This is not very reliable as no scientific studies have been mention and the website is dedicated to the anti-abortion movement.
Conclusion
After considering all this evidence I have come to the conclusion that Vaccines are not at all 100% safe as have many of the vaccine providers and manufacturers but surely the benefits outweigh the risks of potential side effects. But as a result of my research I also believe that the decision on whether or not to vaccinate should ultimately lay with the parents (if a child) or the individual themselves and a choice should be provided rather than it being compulsory. Many of my ‘against’ sources are relatively weak and this was because I could not gather many reputable sources that discouraged vaccines and claimed they were dangerous, many people have also said that parents who do not immunize their children are selfish and took a rather negative viewpoint on the topic rather than evaluating each individual point. The anti-vaccine movement in general was disgraced by Dr. Andrew Wakefield so topic is still generally rather controversial. But it would be very hard to provide a solid piece of evidence linking Autism and MMR as the study would take years and a certain degree of chance come into the equation as some of the people may have acquired Autism even if they had not been vaccinated.
The positive effects of vaccinations far outweigh the negatives but if a parent still has doubts it should not affect the wider society due to the idea of ‘Herd Immunity’ that I discussed earlier and as a result would mean that the child, though not immune to the disease in question in a biological sense should be at much lower risk of infection due to the people around him being immunised. But if this gets out of hand and many parents do not vaccinate their children for any reason then these diseases could re-emerge over time.
Bibliography
- The NHS – This should be very reliable but some of the facts may be biased/distorted as the NHS is run by the government and is therefore very pro immunization
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OCR 21st Century Science Biology textbook – This is a very reliable source as it is from the exam board, who are a neutral source and the aim is to educate so should contain facts
- Daily Mail – This is not a very reliable source as it is a tabloid so mainly contain opinions rather than facts but is very good at conveying people’s opinions
- BBC News – This website is a very reliable website as it is an independent website that is widely recognized as being one of the best news providers in the country
- TIME Magazine – TIME Magazine is one of the most influential magazines in the world and is generally accepted as a reliable source of information
- Wikipedia – This is a fairly reliable source as it has contributors from all around the world, involved in all different professions but can be edited by anybody (although the moderation process is relatively strict and false information tends to be removed fairly quickly)
- CNN – This is one of the most widely recognized as a reliable source of news but is also criticised for having an alleged liberal bias
- The reliability of this source has to be scrutinized as it is a website dedicated to the anti-vaccine movement so will naturally be providing information from an anti-vaccine stance. No proof of the validity such as scientific study results have been provided with the claim either so that has to be taken into account
Appendix
WHO (World Health Organisation) - The World Health Organisation is a specialized agency of the UN (United Nations) that is concerned with public health across the world. They are responsible for providing leadership and setting standards for health across the globe
NHS (National Health Service) – The NHS is the public health service of the UK, it is the world’s largest publicly funded health service. It is run by the government.
CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) – The CDC is part of the United States’ Department for Health and Human Services. According to their website, their aim is to ‘is to collaborate to create the expertise, information, and tools that people and communities need to protect their health – through health promotion, prevention of disease, injury and disability, and preparedness for new health threats.’
AAP (The American Institute of Paediatrics) – The AAP are an independent organisation who are, according to their website ‘committed to the optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults.’
MHRA (The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) – Like the CDC, the MHRA are a government run organisation that is part of the Department for Health and Human Services. They are responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work, and are safe.
