The argument for vaccinations

[Storyteller.]

The argument for vaccinations
By Traci (Coffee.)

Vaccinations are considered one of the 20th century’s biggest medical success stories. Childhood illnesses that once were a common reason for mortality, such as polio, small pox, and mumps are seen as problems of the past in developed nations. Recently, skepticism about the effectiveness and safety of vaccinations has become a common concern. Because of this, fewer parents are having their children vaccinated, causing outbreaks of now rare illnesses; for example, there is currently a measles outbreak in Newark, Texas, in an area with a high concentration of people who do not believe in the use of vaccinations for religious reasons. This shows the high effectiveness of vaccines, but also shows how quickly outbreaks can happen once vaccinations are not being utilized. It’s important to understand how vaccinations work in order to make educated decisions on having yourself vaccinated.

There are different types of vaccines that each work a bit differently, but the basic idea is always the same: by taking some of the material of a disease and administering it into somebody’s body. A vaccine works by taking some weakened or killed pathogen of an illness, and administering it into somebody's body so that they create an immune response. After the vaccination, most of the antibodies degenerate, but some cells known as "memory cells" are present in the body afterwards that can produce the specific antibodies against the pathogen if the body encounters them again. This immune response is very fast compared to one which the body would have produced had it not been exposed to the antigen prior to the infection, thus providing a better defense against the disease.

That’s how vaccines work at an individual level. From a population level, vaccinations help even more! When the majority of people in a group have been vaccinated, it makes it so that infections cannot spread within the population. This protects everybody, even those who have not been vaccinated, because so many people have that the infections are unable to spread. This idea is called herd immunity, and it is the reason that polio, smallpox, and other illnesses are so rare in the developed world; the majority of people are vaccinated, and therefore the small number of individuals who are not vaccinated are protected. This is very good, especially for those whose immune systems are unable to handle vaccinations.

For the majority of people, vaccinations are completely safe. Some may temporarily develop mild side effects from the vaccine, such as a fever (due to the immune response happening in their body) or pain in the area of administration (due to the needle being inserted into the muscle tissue). These side effects are mild compared to the onset of the illnesses they protect against. However, certain vaccines may be dangerous for particular individuals; for example, the influenza, or flu, vaccine is made using egg yolk. Those who are allergic to eggs cannot have this vaccine, and depend on herd immunity to not get sick. This makes it even more important for others to get vaccinated in order to protect those who cannot. If you are worried about side effects, particularly if you believe you may have a condition that may make you ineligible for a particular vaccine, you should talk to your doctor.

Each year, there are rumors about specific vaccinations causing illness or death among those vaccinated. For example, the HPV vaccine has recently stirred up this type of concern over side effects, some resulting in death. However, these deaths are incredibly rare, and can never definitively be blamed on the vaccine. These incidences are never statistically relevant enough to put yourself or others at risk for spread of infection. If somebody is concerned about the side effects of a particular vaccine and is wondering about the necessity of a vaccine in comparison to the side effects they should talk to their doctor before making the decision to go without the vaccination or not vaccinate their children. This is preferable to relying on data from other sources, such as the internet or health magazines, as doctors can give more accurate information for making informed decisions.

Another recent controversy surrounding vaccines is the question if vaccinations cause many rising illnesses, such as autism. There is definitely a correlation (defined as a relationship between two factors within statistics) between rising vaccination rates and rising autism rates, and this sparked many researchers to study whether or not autism and vaccinations could be related; in the end, they found no evidence to suggest that vaccinations are causing autism. Unfortunately, the original spark of fear had news outlets instilling fear among the general population, and has influenced people to still avoid vaccinations due to the high correlation. It’s important to remember that a correlation does not imply a causation. For example, murder rates go up as ice cream sales go up. Does this mean that ice cream causes murders? Of course not! Heat is often related to crime, and heat is often related to ice cream sales. Whatever is “causing” autism has increased in modern times, and so have vaccination rates, but there is no evidence to say that these two are related.

Vaccinations are a miraculous preventative medicine that save millions of lives each year. They go under rigorous testing in clinical trials before being given to the public, and are not something that should be feared. Rather, vaccines should be something celebrated and utilized as a way to protect oneself and others from potentially deadly or debilitating illness.