Blog
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The Frontline Special “Vaccine Wars”
acknowledges a growing problem of people refusing to get vaccinated due to
social media and false claims. In
general, many of the critics of vaccination claim that vaccines are the cause
of autism and other learning disabilities.
However, many studies have shown that the rate of autism and other
learning disabilities is about the same in children who are vaccinated and
those who aren’t. Many of the children
who are vaccinated are around the age when autism becomes evident, so this may
be the reason for the correlation.
Despite the numerous claims that
vaccines are the cause of certain illnesses, I still believe that the overall
positive effects of vaccination highly outweigh the negative effects of vaccination. Once I have kids, I will still chose to
vaccinate them because I know that I will be aiding in the prevention of a
disease outbreak.
Herd immunity is the idea that having
a few people not vaccinated is not worrisome due to the fact that the
surrounding people are already vaccinated to the illness in question. People who have already been vaccinated are
not the ones at risk, nor will they be able to spread the disease. Herd Immunity only works if a certain
percentage of the population is vaccinated.
If too many people are not vaccinated then the protection network may
break down because the large number of people not vaccinated are now at risk
for a preventable disease.
Vaccinations are different from other
types of personal health decisions because some people aren’t too keen on
preventing something that they believe is no longer existent. Prior to the internet, parents would have to
go into a medical school campus to find testimonials of negative effects of
disease. Now however, all it takes is a
simple web search of the vaccine in question.
Low and behold, the negative opinions of the vaccine are going to be
very evident because of the emotional appeal that the writers put into it. I believe it is ultimately the parents’ decision
on whether or not their child should be vaccinated. I also believe that the government should
educate the public about how important vaccinations are.
The main reason that people tend to
be scared of vaccinations is because of popular media exploits. People become terrified of the vaccinations
because their child’s overall health is the most important thing to them. Some people believe that because humans have
lived for hundreds of thousand for years prior to the first vaccine that the
human body is sufficient enough alone to fend off disease.
Public health officials should publicize
the benefits towards society if everyone were to be vaccinated. They should also show how only a small
fraction of people who have received the vaccine had adverse reactions. I would have the government spend money on
movie productions to implant little public health messages within the
text. Movies like Contagion and Outbreak
demonstrate to the public how real outbreaks of lethal diseases could be and
how the only way to stop there spread is to vaccinate others.
I liked reading your blog. Your summary was good and it covered much of what happened in the program but I thought your summary focused a bit too much on autism. It makes it seem as if the film was mostly about fighting the claims on autism. Other than that, I enjoyed reading your views on what makes vaccines different from usual health decisions and spreading awareness. I agree that movies are indeed a good way to demonstrate the importance of vaccines.
ReplyDeleteGood analytical view of the video.
ReplyDeleteFor Qn 3, vaccinations are not only personal health decisions but they are also a public health issue in that if a child is not vaccinated, that child is at risk of developing the disease against which they are not vaccinated but is also places other children in danger of contracting the disease if they come in contact with them.
It is true that parents are very important in deciding if children are vaccinated and the government does play a role. Think of schools as well in contributing to this.
For Qn 4, think of the parent, Physician and the health system.
Parents, like you mention may be afraid of the consequences of vaccination as displayed by the media. Physicians too may contribute by not alleviating the fears of parents who come into their offices. A health care system that does not provide health insurance coverage to allow for immunizations can contribute to this.
I agree that the media can be used to communicate the benefits of vaccination Think also of mandatory policies at school requiring children to be vaccinated.