Vaccine Controversy

The rise of science and technology over the decades as let to people living longer and healthier lives. The invention of vaccinations in late 18th century has greatly increased human longevity and has helped stopped epidemic outbreaks like the smallpox epidemic (Stern and Markel). However in a recent article published by the science journal magazine, Nature, says in parts of the country, the rate of refusal of mandatory childhood vaccinations for non-medical reasons stands at 25%. And unpublished data show that this rate is continuing to increase (“Nature”). The new statistic may in fact be valid, but the information the Nature article presented is skewed. For instance, the Nature article neglects to mention that people are refusing to get vaccines for less communicable and not as dangerous diseases. I’m taking aim at the Nature article argument because we’ve seen over the past one hundred years the rate of refusal of vaccinations has gone down. People have witnessed that vaccines are successful at preventing disease and are also very safe. Year-by-year the percentage of people not getting vaccines has typically gone down.

Although in the past two years there’s been an increase in refusal to vaccinate, there are more vaccinations today than there were ten years ago. Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News Senior Health and Medical Editor, stated in a Good Morning America article,

"While the percentage of parents delaying and refusing vaccines has gone up, we offered more vaccines in 2008 than in 2003," he said. "So there were more opportunities to delay or refuse getting them in 2008 than there were in 2003. It's important to note that vaccine coverage overall has increased during the study period" (Naaman). Dr. Besser’s statement explains that even if the rate of refusal of vaccinations has gone up recently, it may not be making that great of an impact on our population’s health because there are many more vaccinations today than there were years ago.

Even though the percentage of parents refusing or delaying vaccinations rose, there is data from the Centers for Disease Control and that indicates vaccination completion of the primary vaccines by age 2 increased overall between 2003 and 2008 (Naaman). Some of the newer vaccinations people are receiving today are helping to prevent potential diseases and cancers like HPV and cervical cancer. If a person refuses one of these newer vaccines but still receives an older vaccine like the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine there won’t be a big of an impact on the population’s health as there could be if they refused to receive a vaccination for a highly communicable disease. This is because the newer vaccinations are preventing illnesses that aren’t as communicable as other illnesses that older vaccinations protect us against. This coincides with Dr. Besser’s comment saying, “Today's study may indicate that more parents are spacing out vaccines and possibly refusing newer vaccines” (Naaman).

The Nature article also focuses on how politicians are impacting the rate of refusing vaccinations. The Nature article explained how Minnesota congresswoman, Michele Bachmann, made a claim on national television saying that the human papillomavirus (HVP) vaccine is a “potentially dangerous drug” and stated that it is linked to “mental retardation” (“Nature”). By writing this, Nature is showing that words and advice from high authority leaders may be persuading the population to stop getting vaccinations.

Being a Nursing major, I feel that politicians and celebrities should keep themselves out of the ethical issue of vaccination. In a recent article published by the NY Times and written by Timothy Egan also agrees with me. Egan wrote, “ill-informed politicians can set back vaccination rates for years, ultimately leading to more premature deaths” (Egan). People should not take the advice of a politician on such a personal and ethical issue. Politicians and celebrities are not trained and educated doctors they cannot accurately tell you that vaccinations are good or bad or what kind of potentials side effects they could have. Instead people should rely on doctors, health-care professionals, and researchers options if they need advice on whether to vaccinate or not. Politicians and celebrities options on vaccinations could potentially led to deaths if lots of people listen and believe what they’re saying are true.

It’s safe to say, vaccinations are very important and safe ways of preventing disease. Over the past one hundred years with the help of vaccinations we’ve eradicated

highly infectious diseases like smallpox and lowered the prevalence of many other diseases. Vaccinations in Europe helped led to the eradication of smallpox (Fenner and Henderson). Even if the percentage of people not getting vaccinated may have slightly gone up in the last few years it really is insignificant because over the last hundred years the trend of people not getting vaccinated has gone down greatly. The population went from losing quite a large percentage of the population from severe epidemic outbreaks to creating vaccines and saving many peoples’ lives. In order to bring the percentage of refusal of vaccination back down politicians and celebrities should keep their options out of the public eye, and people should make the executive decision to be vaccinated based on their personal beliefs and their health-care providers’ advice.





Works Cited:

Egan, Timothy. "Idiocy and Advocacy." New York Times 22 Sep 2011. n. pag. Web. 5 Oct. 2011. <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/idiocy-and-advocacy/?scp=2&sq=vaccination and politicians&st=cse>.


Fenner, F., and D.A Henderson. Smallpox and it's Eradication. (1988): n. page. Print. <http://whqlibdoc.who.int/smallpox/9241561106.pdf>.


Naaman, Laura. "Study: More Parents Refuse or Delay Vaccinations for Kids." Good Morning America. ABC, 05 May 2010. Web. 5 Oct 2011. <http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/study-parents-refuse-delay-vaccinations-kids/story?id=10545911>.


Stern, Alexandra, and Howard Markel. "The History Of Vaccines And Immunization: Familiar Patterns, New Challenges." Health Affairs . 24.3 (2005): n. page. Print. <http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/24/3/611.full>.


"The wrong message on vaccines." Nature. 22 Sep 2011: n. page. Web. 5 Oct. 2011. <http://www.nature.com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/nature/journal/v477/n7365/full/477369a.html>.