Do vaccinations cause autism - Essay Example

? Do Vaccinations Cause Autism? Why and how do people continue to believe that vaccinations cause autism, in spite of substantial evidence that their belief is not true? Introduction What is autism? Autism refers to a mental condition whereby the person suffering from it would have difficulties in relationship building and social interactions with people around him. He would prefer living all by himself alone in a world of fantasy which overrides the ground realities for him. This is a neural disorder and shows symptoms from the very earliest days of a person’s life. People have linked this syndrome to be a cause of several factors including vaccinations received in childhood. Despite the fact that many researchers and psychologists have conducted thorough studies on this agenda and developed conclusion that this cause-effect relationship has no weightage to it, general public still continues to believe on the contrary. This paper entails a detailed discussion on history of such controversial beliefs. Later it provides the reasons that lead people to develop this mindset and the remedies that might help overcome this misconception. Finally the paper concludes at closing notes regarding this entire subject-matter. Birth of a flawed belief Despite the alarmingly positive effects of vaccination, the masses have had doubts about safety of vaccines over the past decades. This all began back in Britain after the publication of a study led by Dr. Andrew Wakefield in 1998. This study linked symptoms of autism to the anti-measles vaccine, showing strong relationship between the two. However, subsequently his research was altogether proved to be erroneous and majority of the authors involved in this study withdrew their stances. But the vibes created by this study were already far too devastating, leading a major proportion of general public to fall for this disbelief throughout Britain. Soon out of superstition, people started pulling out their children from vaccination programmes, decreasing the vaccination rates by 19% generally while by 42% in certain parts of London. Consequently, England and Wales saw measles sweeping into their system again causing substantial number of people to suffer from it in 2006 and 2007, exceeding those in the entire previous decade. Further in 2008, the number of cases being reported rose by nearly 50%. In the 1930s, another breakthrough invention in field of vaccinations gave birth to Thimerosal which was added to vaccines to make them safer and less prone to causing bacterial infections. However, the presence of mercury elements in it has been the root cause of uprising amongst people who protest that thimerosal is a major catalyst in Autism and other neurological conditions that produce symptoms similar to those of mercury poisoning. Though, autism had always been depicted by humans in their behavior, its name was coined in 1943 while its definition still continues to evolve. Since then, there have been various pressure groups and popular activists including famous celebrities like Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey and public person Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Prasad et al, 2009). Autism: a by-product of vaccinations In recent decades, autism has gained excessive attention, with drastic rise from less than one child in every 2,500 children in 1970 to one in every 150 suffering from it as of today. It is only natural for their parents to get anxious to find root cause behind such disorder. Out of desperation, they begin to doubt and question the logic and justifications for getting their children vaccinated in the first place: that is where it all begins. Recent generations, who have never known such diseases to have existed and have never witnesses the miseries that were once caused to human race by these viruses, tend to believe that vaccinations is just a step towards destructive artificial support system for life. They focus on apparent risks and damages that are claimed to have been caused by vaccination such as autism. People take for granted what they cannot see and do not consider the opportunity costs of avoiding diseases through vaccinations which they believe don’t even exist. In today’s world where people have reasoning minds and skeptical views about anything and everything, it is virtually impossible to expect them to trust pharmaceutical manufacturers, doctors, health-promoting bodies and the overall science of saving lives. Autism is so widely believed to be a by-product of vaccinations that World Health Organization is of the view that Europe has badly failed in its long-term plan to eliminate measles by 2010 due to psychological trap of connecting autism with vaccination and thereby lesser inclination of people towards childhood vaccinations (Washington, 2012). Contrasting evidences It must be noted that vaccinations might have risks and side effects as proved in very few random cases, such as swelling, fever or rashes, but those cannot be used to project a picture that its risks overshadow the benefits offered by it. All other medical treatments also have similar mechanism with no guarantee to have positive results in all cases. All vaccines sold in the United States are scrutinized prior to reaching the markets and getting licensed. Therefore, it can be comfortably assumed that the diseases being cured by these vaccines have far more likely chances of occurring and devastating repercussions than the possibilities of any side effect occurring. The Institute of Medicine, with intentions to identify reasons behind autism, reviewed various epidemiological studies involving millions of children across the globe. They scrutinized conclusions reached by each study to assess their accuracy and found that all children had similar chances of developing autism, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated or not: Immune systems and biological and hereditary factors were the sole reasons behind children suffering from mental disorders. This study also concluded that the level of mercury proportions in thimerosal was too immaterial to be harmful to a human body. At other various occasions, nearly 10 distinct studies proved that there is no connection between MMR vaccine for measles and autism while 6 other groups couldn’t find any link of autism to thimerosal injection. Finally, subsequent to these studies, health authorities had accepted the fact that there are other unscientific, political and business motivational factors behind the reasoning that autism is a direct outcome of vaccination. Effectiveness of Vaccinations It would be very unfair to absolutely write off the benefits of vaccinations without proper prior homework. Its benefits have always been proved out to outweigh its immaterial side effects. Global acceptance and adoption of vaccinations has been the most effective and essential tool in enhancing the life expectancy of people, superseding usage of antibiotics. It has helped completely wipe out many deadly diseases from the very root, including cholera, yellow fever, small pox and measles. Measles encephalitis was once known to be the most infectious illness, affecting nearly four million Americans per year until invention of a curing vaccine in 1963. Approximately 52 million measles infections were averted in a period of 2 decades, alone in the United States. Statistics show that this disease was capable of possibly causing 5,000 people to die while 17,000 to suffer from mental conditions, had there been no vaccine. Speaking in terms of money, each dollar spent on anti-measles vaccine, commonly known as MMR vaccine, results in a saving of nearly twenty in direct medical costs, leave alone the unquantifiable value of number of human lives saved. Small pox, another most widespread virus in those times, was removed from existence by the end of 1979. This disease was known to have taken billions of lives, surpassing the number of deaths faced during any war or global revolution. Advanced and complex aspects The history has proved that fear has always been more infectious and dangerous than any virus. Therefore, the denial arguments presented by people show that they simply fear the acceptance of any information that contradicts with their basic faith against science. This has allowed politics to sweep into the system, turning achievements of modern medicine and science into a matter of doubt and debate for people who provide motivated reasoning in order to benefit from the entire propaganda, such as fame, acclamation, monetary benefits and enhanced market growth and share of own products. In today’s era where masses are engaged in denial movements, there would always be pressure for medical researchers and manufacturers to be extra cautious not to be part of any controversial invention or venture. People would tend to link a single case or company to the entire vaccination process. If a child would demonstrate vaccine reactions and deteriorating health subsequent to being vaccinated, the first spontaneous reaction by his parents would be to find a scapegoat and blame it all to be a side effect of vaccination. Denying it to be fault on their part of taking care of their child or being a mere coincidence would be their way out of this, proving it to be a repercussion of science. Similarly, many activists claim that government and pharmaceutical companies have incentives to conceal evidence that vaccines cause autism due to excessive mercury exposure. They argue in denial that the authorities should have courteous consideration for millions of parents whose kids have suffered from mental disorder from pediatrician's prescriptions and treatments. It is of course a very genuine demand from the authoritative bodies to look into these cases thoroughly to identify any remote or probable connection between autism and vaccinations and for these reasons, there have been hundreds of researches and case studies conducted in past, with no solid evidences pointing towards any discrepancies proving the point. It is high time to accept that autism is an entire separate ballgame from vaccinations and funds should be instead directed towards other factors which might possibly the reasons behind it. The key point being made here is the fact that despite of such factual information available, no one wants to be the bad guy who would make an official statement on record that researches must be stopped in this regard since there is no fruitful outcome expected out of them. This would make these politicians appear to be insensitive and indifferent to painful concerns of parents involved these cases. Therefore, each one of them wants to keep off this responsibility and demonstrate sympathetic gestures towards these parents who might get outraged in response to any statement apart from what they believe to be: a typical example of denial argument and motivated reasoning. With minds which are only open to accepting information matching their preconceived notions, there has been increasing trend for parents to depart from vaccination schemes and take measures acceptable to their beliefs. Moreover, many of them now prefer homeschooling for their children rather than sending to elementary schools which have mandatory prerequisites of getting all children vaccinated to avoid possible spreading of infections (Specter). Conclusion With the increasing awareness of vaccinations with mercury components in them and a parallel increase in number of children suffering from autism, general public, bearing only little knowledge about science, did simple math and started believing them to be connected. This had multiple-fold spiral effect: the vicious circle kept growing and soon a large proportion of people were engaged in this superstition and acting accordingly. Vaccination has a large social and environmental footprint and therefore it is not only restricted within a single family or area. These diseases that vaccines combat against are highly contagious and spread like wildfire. It is capable of eradicating entire societies of human races and therefore a single child not taking vaccinations can become a cause of hundreds of deaths. It is necessary to acknowledge that science is a slow process and has not yet succeeded in discovering actual causes behind autism, if any, and blaming vaccinations for it is not the remedy. It is not purely justified to reject the link of mercury to mental conditions but after significant research it is only fair to divert our attention and resources on other possible factors that may have been causing autism for centuries now. By moving away from vaccinations and discouraging others to do the same, parents are not only exposing their own children to greater risks of catching physical and psychological diseases but also endangering the entire human race to suffer from deadly diseases. References Prasad, M., A. J. Perrin, K. Bezila, S. G. Hoffman, K. Kindleberger, K. Manturuk and A. S. Powers (2009). There must be a reason: Osama, Saddam and inferred justification, Sociological Inquiry, 79(2), 142-162. Specter, M. (n.d). Vaccines and the great denial. Washington, H. (2012). 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