Está en la página 1de 10

Roberts !

1
Alexis Roberts
Professor Padgett
English 102
April 17, 2016
Do Vaccinations Cause Other Illnesses?
The study of medicine and health is a complex and dynamic field. This is due to the fact
that even those who have the greatest expertise in disease and health complications have not
been able to explicitly pinpoint a source for some afflictions that affect thousands of people. It
has been recently suggested that there is a connection between vaccinations and diseases. However, due to numerous recent studies, this theory of the origin of some illnesses has been thoroughly disproven. Some diseases, that have been studied extensively, that dispel this myth that
vaccinations inherently cause illness are the development of autism, the sudden onset of infant
death syndrome, and the origin of multiple sclerosis. There is a large body of supporting medical
research that disproves the vaccination theory.
Autism is one neurological disorder that has been claimed to originate from vaccinations.
Autism Spectrum Disorder is a disability that causes the brain to function differently and causes
a multitude of developmental issues. People with Autism Spectrum Disorder may communicate,
behave, and learn in different ways. To describe the prevalence of this affliction, Recent estimates from Center for Disease Controls Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring
Network found that about 1 in 68 children have been identified with Autism Spectrum Disorder
in communities across the United States (Vaccines Do). Clearly, this disorder affects a sizable
portion of our youth and, because of that has been examined significantly. Consequently, there

Roberts !2
are a myriad of studies that prove the vaccination theory for Autism Spectrum Disorder to be
false. Back in 2011, an Institute of Medicine report on 8 different vaccines that were given to
patients explained that these vaccinations were extremely safe with rare exceptions (Vaccines
Do). The Center for Disease Control also conducted a study that then added to the previous
study that took place in 2011 that also proved that the vaccines and Autism Spectrum Disorder
had no significant relation.
Furthermore, a vaccine ingredient that has been specifically studied is thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that is used to stop contamination of multi-dose vials of vaccines. In
2004 scientific review by the Institution of Medicine concluded that the evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosalcontaining vaccines and autism (Vaccines
Do). Since 2003, there has been nine Center for Disease Control studies that have done a large
number of research and found no link between thimerosal-containing vaccines and Autism Spectrum Disorder in children. This is one specific example of a common ingredient in vaccines that,
under extensive research, shows no relation to the development of autism.
Another myth is that the Diphtheria-Tentanus-Pertussis (DTP) vaccine is linked with
sudden infant death syndrome. The first dose of Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis is given when a
baby is two months old, which is around the same time of life when sudden infant death syndrome is at a higher risk. A number of studies that go back to the 1980s looked at the occurrence
of sudden infant death syndrome deaths occurring at the time of the Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis
vaccine. The researchers came to the conclusion that the number of deaths was at a level about
equal to the number that would be expected to take place by pure chance and that is has no rela-

Roberts !3
tion to the vaccination (Vaccines). Therefore, this further supports the notion that there a number of other factors that appear to contribute to disease while vaccinations are not involved at all.
Another myth is that the hepatitis B vaccine causes multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis
or MS is a disease that causes extensive damage to the central nervous system, an important organ system that connects and receives information from nerves across the human body. The origin of MS is unknown, mainly due to the fact that no two people with the condition experience
exactly the same symptoms. Although critics have claimed that hepatitis B immunizations can
cause or trigger a relapse of multiple sclerosis, the IOM safety committee could find no scientific
support for the theory. The same report also concluded that there is no evidence that the hepatitis
B vaccine. Since vaccines were found to have no significant relation to MS whatsoever, research
of the debilitating condition continues.
Immunizations or vaccines have been used worldwide to reduce the effects and number
of illnesses, disabilities, and other disorders. According to the World Health Organization, one
in every five children worldwide fail to receive routine life-saving vaccines, and almost 1.5 children die every year because of those diseases which can be definitely prevented by the existing
vaccines (The Growing). There has become a large number of people that hesitate to get the
vaccines for either themselves or their children because of weakness in the public health system,
poor infrastructure, and health care workers constraints. However, the most important aspect of
this that it is costing the lives of our children in our society. The root of this issue [includes]
concerns about vaccine safety; myths prevalent in society; lack of awareness about utility and
advantages of vaccines; mistrust in the public health system or health care workers; influence of
the stakeholders including local leaders in shaping up perceptions among the general population;

Roberts !4
involved costs; geographic barriers; fear of needles; and personal attributes (The Growing).
Again, because of all of these listed factors, we are losing more lives every year simply because
people refuse to receive a vaccine. This accentuates the importance of the elimination of these
myths surrounding vaccinations.
In order to address the issue that the public health companies have with vaccine hesitancy, there is a need to have very accurate hypothesis of the issue in a very particular place and information about the cause of it so that strategies can be made to try and stop the hesitancy from
occurring. Strategies were brought up that included participation of religious or the community
stockholders to better the trends of vaccination in the community (The Growing).
Some tend to disagree with the scientist that state there is no relation between the two.
The origin of these beliefs stemmed from a review of more than 1,000 vaccine studies, which
was intended to assess the scientific evidence in the medical literature about specific adverse
events associated with eight vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, influenza, hepatitis
A, hepatitis B, HPV, diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, and meningococcal (Mercola).
Nearly 2 decades ago the Institute of Medicine discovered scientific evidence of a relationship
between specific vaccines and health issues. The majority of side effects and health problems
that have been thought to have a relationship with vaccinations, basically have no idea whether
the vaccination caused the health issue or not. The IOM report may feel there is too little evidence to make conclusions about vaccine-induced side effects (Mercola). The obscurity and
doubt surrounding the relation between vaccines and actual illness from a large body of medical
research substantially diminishes the validity of that claim.

Roberts !5
Children are not receiving the vaccines they need to in order to be properly assisted in
fighting potentially deadly diseases. Around 10% of children from the age of nineteen months to
thirty-five months old received extra vaccination according to the National Immunization Survey
data from 1999 to 2003. As of right now children are expected to get 48 doses of 14 vaccines by
the time they are just 6 years old. Their first vaccine would be given to them the day they are
born in the nursery. It is imperative that healthcare professionals do everything they can to help
preserve the fragile life of an infant as soon as possible. That is why following the vaccine
schedule is vital to the early development of a childs immune system. Childhood vaccines protect children from a variety of serious or potentially fatal diseases, including diphtheria, measles,
polio and whooping cough (pertussis). If these diseases seem uncommon or even unheard of
it's usually because these vaccines are doing their job (Mayo Clinic). Some may argue that
natural immunization is better than vaccinations because of how natural infection results in better
immunity than vaccinations although there are very serious risks. However, all vaccinations help
prevent serious health issues and other diseases. As told before given any type of medicine or
vaccination, they can cause side effects. The side effects are usually minor inconveniences such
as fussiness, soreness at the injection site, or a low-grade fever. These are relatively insignificant
when compared to the survival of a child. Extremely rarely might a child have an allergic reaction or a neurological side effect (seizures).
Another issue is the picking and choosing of the vaccinations to receive. In reality, skipping vaccines is particularly disadvantageous. By skipping vaccines, it can leave you or your
child helpless to serious diseases. Sometimes the only protection from the vaccine-preventable

Roberts !6
diseases is the immunity of the people in their environment. With the immunization rates remaining low it helps the vaccine-preventable diseases to not develop a threat to us.
In 2015, the National Vaccine Information Center proceeded with a national vaccine education billboard and ad campaign that originally started in 2013 to promote information about
vaccine risk and the right to practice voluntary, informed consent to vaccination. Every vaccination is recommended by government health officials has a risk attached to them. Some of the
risks even lead to chronic brain and immune system damage or even death. There has always
been a lot of complications which have all been identified in medical documents. In 2012, the
IOM published a report, Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality, and acknowledged
there are high risk factors not yet identified by medical science that can increase individual susceptibility to vaccine reactions (Vaccinations?). There are also many ways you can figure out
if you are having a reaction to different vaccinations. Some of these reactions could be redness
and swelling, heart of hardness at the injection site that continues for more then a couple of days,
rashes, longer and deeper sleeps, crying, high fever, joint pain and muscle weakness, etc. Major
problems of vaccination can lead to lasting injury or even death. However, all of the aforementioned serious conditions are have an astronomically small chance of occurring.
Rotavirus, which consist of any RNA viruses, can be effectively killed off through vaccination. Rotavirus is related to acute gastroenteritis (AGE), which is the most common source of
childhood acute gastroenteritis and a significant correspondent to childhood morbidity and mortality. The alteration that was made in order for the grouping of unnamed gastroenteritis, which
appeared in the 2009 Version of ICD-10, is significant enough for examiners preparation assessment of rotavirus immunization programs to be aware of. They would speak highly about the

Roberts !7
researchers that considered using both A09.9 and K52.9 to make sure that all unnamed instances
of acute gastroenteritis, both infectious and non-infectious, are detained in research using organizational factual information.
The public health officials in the United States discovered the first incident of H1N1 influenza virus. Scientist had a fear that this would trigger a major universal influenza outbreak.
The United States government ordered new emergency preparedness measures to moderate the
possible outbreak of the influenza. There were many different responses from the state governments to the scare of the H1N1 influenza virus outbreak. Many questions were brought to attention but one of the main ones was What determines governmental attention to emerging health
issues? (Pacheco). There were a multitude of studies done to locate the answer to this question
and there was finally a confusion found after many decades of research. The government attention to public problems is influenced by myriad factors including issue characteristics and problem definition (Rochefort and Cobb 1994; Donovan 2001), interest group activity (Baumgartner
and Jones 1993), i focusing events (Birkland 1998), the media (Colby and Cook 1991), and the
public (Pacheco).
In total, because of an expansive body of extensive research, it can be reasonably determined that there is no link between vaccinations and other negative health afflictions. There have
been a myriad of different myths and misunderstandings surrounding the thought that vaccinations have a negative impact on someones health. These sources prove these theories to be false
and that vaccinations are a positive advancement in the field of medicine. Those who do not get
their vaccinations or get their children vaccinated at a young age tend to have a higher chance of
obtaining a virus or disease that can cause them to become extremely ill. It is essential to encour-

Roberts !8
age the vaccination of all people so that not only do they live a healthier life, but so do those
around them.
Alexis,
I get a much better sense of synthesis here compared to the last draft. It feels less like a laundry
list of myths and more like a discussion, but it still does have that laundry list quality to it. So
good work there. From what I can tell, it looks like you only have one peer-reviewed source.
You need a couple more to really lend yourself authority on the topic. This can actually be quite
problematic. But you have made good use of what you do have here. Nice work.

Roberts !9

Work Cited
"Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism." Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 23 Nov. 2015.
Web. 25 Feb. 2016. <http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/
autism.html>.
"Vaccines and Side Effects: The Facts." Healthy Children. Immunizations Infectious Dis
eases: An Informed Parent's Guide, 21 Nov. 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2016. <https://
www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/immunizations/Pages/Vaccines-And-SideEffects-The-Facts.aspx>.
"The Growing Global Problem of Vaccine Hesitancy: Time to Take Action." International
Journal of Preventive Medicine. Department of Community Medicine, Web. 25 Feb.
2016. <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.pallas2.tcl.sc.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfview
er?sid=c58df4a0-9c7b-47fb83f-0830bf3c0dd1%40sessionmgr115&vid=1&hid=122>.
Mercola, . "Vaccines Have Serious Side Effects - The Institute of Medicine Says So!." Mer
cola. 27 Sept. 2011. Web. 25 Feb. 2016. <http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/ar
chive/2011/09/27/vaccines-are-dangerous-says-the-government.aspx>.

Roberts !10
Mayo Clinic, Staff. "Childhood vaccines: Tough questions, straight answers." Mayo Clinic.
12 Feb. 2016. Web. 25 Feb. 2016. <http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/in

fant-

and-toddler-health/in-depth/vaccines/art-20048334>.
"Vaccinations? Know the Risks and Failures." National Vaccine Information Center. 12
Feb. 2016. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nvic.org/vaccines-and-diseases/Vaccinations-Know-the-risks-and-failures-.aspx>.
Wilson, Sarah E., Shelley L. Deeks, and Laura C. Rosella. "Importance of ICD-10 coding
directive change for acute gastroenteritis (unspecified) for rotavirus vaccine impact
studies: illustration from a population-based cohort study from Ontario,
Canada." (2015): 6. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.pallas2.tcl.sc.e
du/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=e5a545fd-c6ae-467f-ac65-e68dc84282de%40ses
gr114&vid=1&hid=122>.
Pacheco, Julianna, and Graeme Boushey. "Public Health and Agenda Setting ." 25. Web.
28 Feb. 2016. <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.pallas2.tcl.sc.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfview
er?sid=e5a545fd-c6ae-467f-ac65-e68dc84282de
%40sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=122>.

sionm-

También podría gustarte