New cases of deadly diseases are
showing up all over the United States. There is no cause or relation between
the different outbreaks besides that they are all in areas where
anti-vaccination movements are very popular.
Vaccines are very important and without them there would be thousands of
more deaths caused by diseases that most of us have been lucky enough to have
not witnessed the deadly side effects of the diseases in our lifetime. The
creation of vaccines was a monumental breakthrough in medicine. Suddenly, these
diseases that people thought they could do nothing to stop were becoming things
of the past. For decades, diseases such as measles were eradicated in the
United States; however, in recent years, a movement of people who are against
vaccinations has arisen in many developed countries. This is the cause of the
new cases of diseases which have been eradicated for decades. This is an epidemic that must be remediated
soon for the safety and health of everyone.
For thousands of years, diseases ran
rampant all over the world. There were poor hygiene standards and medicine, in
general, was not as advanced. One of the greatest medical advances was the
discovery of vaccines. The true first discovery of vaccines was by Edward
Jenner, a doctor living in Gloucestershire, England (Stern Markel 1). In 1796,
he had an idea of how to treat smallpox (1). He took the pus from a cowpox
lesion on a milkmaid’s hand and inoculated an eight-year-old boy, James Phipps
(1). Weeks later, Jenner variolated Phipps with smallpox and Phipps was
unaffected (1). After multiple tests on Phipps and other subjects, he published
his work in a book titled “Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae
Vaccine,” the text quickly spread among medical circles and the practice became
widespread (1). In 1853, the English government made it mandatory for infants
to receive the smallpox vaccine (LaPensee 1). Later, in 1867, they increased it
to children aged fourteen and under (1). This upset the general public which
caused them to pass a law in 1898 which stated that conscientious objection of
vaccines was allowed (1). In the twentieth century, more vaccines were widely
used. The vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, and tuberculosis
also became mandatory unless denied in England; however, the greatest
advancement in vaccines came later that century. (1).
The first polio vaccine was created
by Jonas Salk during the ’50s (Baicus 1). He created the vaccine by growing the
virus on monkey cells in a lab and inactivating the virus with formalin (1). In
1954, this new vaccine was tested on 1.6 million children from the United
States, Canada, and Finland (1). The tests conclusion was overwhelmingly
positive (1). The test caused the United States to adopt the vaccine in April 1955
(1). The mass production of this vaccine caused the incidence of paralysis
causing polio decreased from 13.9 cases per 100,000 people in 1954 to .8 cases
per 100,000 people in 1961 (1).
Vaccines continued to improve for
decades, but the opposition to vaccines also grew. After the success of
vaccines in the early twentieth century, most of the people that were against
vaccinations changed their mind; however, in the late 1900s, they were
reinspired. Andrew Wakefield, a former British doctor and researcher, published
a paper in The Lancet, a medical journal (Hussain 1). This paper claimed that
the measles, mumps, and rubella (shortened as MMR) vaccine caused autism in
young children (1). Although several studies were later released which debunked
this claim and Wakefield was criticized for his unethical research methods, the
damage was already done (1). In the United Kingdom, the MMR vaccination rate
decreased from 92% in 1996 to 84% in 2002 (1). In the United States, MMR
vaccination rates dropped 2% between 1999 and 2000 and even after the paper was
debunked, the decline in vaccination rates persisted (1).
This had many negative effects on
the United States and the United Kingdom. There have been multiple outbreaks of
measles in the western world. Measles was declared as an epidemic in the United
Kingdom in 2008 for the first time in fourteen years (Hussain 1). Ireland had a
measles outbreak in 2000 and had 1,500 reported cases of measles and three
deaths (1). The outbreak was reported to be a direct result of the drop in
vaccination rates after Wakefield published his paper (1). The outbreak even
spread to other countries; between 2008 and 2011, France had 22,000 reported
cases of the measles (1).
The anti-vaccination movement has
also had negative effects in online circles. Due to the great invention and
technological advancement of the internet, medical information is easily
available to everyone. This is mostly good; however, this has also lead to some
people using this ease of access to information to spread lies. Analysis of
online media, such as YouTube videos and Facebook pages, shows that around 60%
of the posts made about vaccinations shared an “anti-vaccination sentiment”
(Hussain 1). People are also easily swayed by people who appear to have sources
that back up their ideas, but most people do not read these sources themselves
and only take things at face value. A study conducted which asked forty people
to submit a website that they believed was telling the truth about vaccines
revealed that only eighteen websites that were submitted were actually
accurate, while the other twenty-two websites were found to be inaccurate (1).
Another experiment showed that even spending five to ten minutes viewing an
anti-vaccination website made people more wary of vaccine risks and less aware
of the risks of omitting from vaccinations (1). These beliefs still persisted
five months later and most of the children of the people that took place in the
experiment had fewer vaccinations than the recommended amount (1).
One of the most infamous examples of
an outbreak caused by anti-vaccination sentiments is a measles outbreak that
happened between 2014 and 2015 in California (Hussain 1). It was believed to
originate from the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California (1). This resulted
in 125 cases of the measles and it was estimated that among the secondary cases
there was an MMR vaccination rate between 50% and 86% (1). Physicians around
Anaheim were criticized and accused of deviating from the CDC’s (Center for
Disease Control and Prevention) recommended vaccination schedule and/or
discouraging vaccinations (1). This outbreak caused California to pass Senate
Bill 277. This bill made vaccinations mandatory by law, no longer allowing
personal and religious exemptions (1).
Another notorious example is during
the H1N1 (otherwise known as swine flu) outbreak of 2009, after being declared
as a national emergency in October 2009 by President Barack Obama, the vaccine
was denied by 55% of all adults (“Vaccines” 1). Half of the people that denied
the vaccinated cited the fear of dangerous side effects as the main reason why
they denied the vaccination (1). The fear was caused by the last time swine flu
outbreak in the United States (1). During that outbreak, the U.S. Public Health
Service used frightening ads to make people get the vaccination (1). This scary
campaign resulted in only 200 cases of H1N1 and only one flu-related death;
however, due to an extremely rare neurological condition called Guillain-Barré
syndrome, the vaccination caused twenty-five deaths and multiple cases of
paralysis and death (1). Although these cases were few and far between, these
cases were what many people focused on and used as their only rationale for not
vaccinating themselves against the resurgence of the swine flu (1).
The biggest problem that is causing
this epidemic is simply how many people are misinformed about vaccines and
misinformed people spreading lies about vaccines. An experiment was performed
in Southern Italy asked 632 adults about their knowledge about vaccines and
where they got that information from. The results showed that 45.4% of
participants thought that they were correctly informed, while it was estimated
that only around 43.8% were actually correct (Tabacchi 1). More interesting data
that was discovered during this study showed that almost 40% of all
participants cited mass media and the internet as to how they gained their
knowledge (1). These participants also tended to be older and misinformed (1).
Younger participants cited pediatricians and scientific magazines as to how
they gathered their information and they also tended to be more correctly
informed (1).
Many people that are against
vaccinations also seem to be unaware of the effectiveness of vaccines in
controlling outbreaks and stopping further outbreaks. In October 1988, a
vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) was introduced to the United
Kingdom (Cohen 1). This brought the reported reports of mumps from 20,713 in
1989 to 4,277 in 1990; however, in 2005, >56,000 cases of mumps were
reported in the United Kingdom (1). The effectiveness of the MMR vaccine was
brought into question, but after rigorous testing, scientists concluded that
the vaccine’s effectiveness was 87.8% for one dose and 94.6% for two doses (1).
After this data was published, vaccinations rates rose and the number of cases
of measles reported decreased (1).
Another case where vaccine
effectiveness was questioned was during a mumps outbreak in Canada. From
September 1st, 2009 to June 10, 2010 cases of mumps were analyzed and the
effectiveness of the vaccine was determined (Deeks 1). The effectiveness of a
single dose of the MMR vaccine was found to be 81.6% and the effectiveness of
two doses of the MMR vaccine was 88% (1). The data showed that the vaccines
were effective and working as intended and this outbreak served as a warning
against denying vaccines and becoming complacent over vaccination schedules
(1).
A solution to this epidemic could be
a campaign to increase the general public’s knowledge about vaccines and their
benefits and a better fight against false information. This solution could be
difficult to achieve, but if big websites that most people use, such as Google
or Facebook, made it harder to find biased sources that are against vaccinations,
fewer people would be susceptible to finding and being swayed by false
information about vaccines.
Albert Camus was a novelist and
absurdist philosopher (Aronson 1). His philosophies were mostly based around
existential questions, such as if life really has a meaning and is it worth
living (1). The question which he pondered the most was on the subject of
suicide and if there was ever a time when it was warranted and what caused
people to commit suicide (Arsonson 3.1). If you look at the epidemic of the
anti-vaccination movement from an abstract point of view, it could be seen as a
very complicated form of committing suicide and not very different from a
doctor-assisted suicide, except you are personally withholding yourself from
the medication that you need. Camus was usually against suicide, as he often
attempted to paint life in a way that is worth living despite being mostly
meaningless; however, some people deny vaccinations simply because they do not
trust the government that is administering them (3.2). Camus’ views on
rebellion were that “creates values, dignity, and solidarity.” (3.2). The
people that deny vaccines because they do not trust the government could be
seen as simply rebelling against who they believe their oppressors are. Camus also
worked closely with the concept of diseases and vaccinations, in his novel, The Plague, he wrote about a deadly
disease that killed many people in the city of Oran. Although in his novel, the
disease represented many different things such as war, he would have a fair
understanding and diseases and vaccinations in general. Camus would most likely
be respectful of their decisions to deny the vaccinations, but would not agree
with them. He would probably be dumbfounded at the decision that some people
make to deny life-saving medicine that is truly a privilege.
Many people are denying life-saving
vaccinations due to misinformation and mistrust. This is a global health
problem and needs to be remedied soon. Vaccines have been proven to be safe and
effective, yet many people still receive misinformation from biased sources
that are against vaccinations. If popular websites that people use on a
day-to-day basis, such as Google and Facebook, took a stand against these
falsified sources and did not give them the ability to be shared and found
freely, the spread of misinformation could be stopped and people would become
more knowledgeable about vaccines in general.
Stern,
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Familiar Patterns, New Challenges.” Health
Affairs, 2005, www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.24.3.611.
LaPensee, Kenneth
Travis. "Vaccination." Biotechnology:
In Context, edited by Brenda Wilmoth
Lerner and K. Lee Lerner, Gale, 2012. In Context Series. Science In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/JBSRTS383495315/SCIC?u=txshracd2496&sid=SCIC&xid=f01261fa.
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Accessed 2 Apr. 2019.
Baicus,
Anda. “History of polio vaccination.” World
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Hussain,
Azhar et al. “The Anti-vaccination Movement: A Regression in Modern Medicine.” Cureus vol. 10,7 e2919. 3 Jul. 2018,
doi:10.7759/cureus.2919
Cohen, Cheryl, et
al. "Vaccine effectiveness estimates, 2004-2005 mumps outbreak,
England." Emerging Infectious
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Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.
Deeks, Shelley L.,
et al. "An assessment of mumps vaccine effectiveness by dose during an
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Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.
Tabacchi,
Garden et al. “Information sources and knowledge on vaccination in a population
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doi:10.1080/21645515.2017.1264733
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