Vaccine War

Introduction

In the U.S., the war rages vaccines to the point that some small towns have decided to suspend vaccination of newborns, especially accused of promoting autism. But these concerns come as close to a campaign of hysteria and pose real risks of epidemics. It is the appearance of autism cases among newborns, just after they were vaccinated, which launched the campaign, backed by big show business personalities. The massive bombardment of vaccines has effects on children's health, they say. Example: Why a vaccine against hepatitis, sexually transmitted disease in an infant? Despite strong medical studies, conducted in Denmark among others, that demonstrate scientifically that we cannot establish a correlation between autism and vaccination, anti-vaccine lobbies do not disarm. That said, the question remains, also in Europe. Recently, the vaccine against cancer of the cervix was attacked and that is questionable. A general distrust has dominated the population that increasingly questions the relevance of the administration of these products that may be toxic and have side effects on newborns is not trivial (Allen, 2007).

Discussion

Scientists say that vaccines have increased our life expectancy of thirty years. In the U.S., preventable diseases like polio have disappeared almost completely and there are sixteen other preventable by vaccines. However, not everyone agrees. In the U.S. state of Oregon, much of the population of Ashland is reluctant to vaccinate their children. They believe that currently are administered four times more shots than in the seventies and prefer their children contract the normal diseases like chicken pox or measles. They believe that vaccines carry more risks than benefits. Health officials continue to insist on the miracle that has led to the vaccination to public health and fear that people entering the disease virtually eradicated. But the greatest fear has come to dominate the anti-vaccine groups comes from the theory that reported on the relationship between MMR vaccine and autism. The war of the vaccine shows some of these children, who were diagnosed with this serious disease immediately after being administered the vaccine (Gust, 2004).

Vaccine Safety Concerns and Risk Perception

Research shows that some factors will make a risk less acceptable and more worrisome. For instance, human-made risks (vaccine side effects) are less acceptable than natural risks (infectious diseases), risks to children are more worrisome than risks to adults, and risks with unclear benefits (vaccines for unseen diseases) are less acceptable than risks where the benefits are understood. One example is measles and the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine. Measles has not been epidemic in the United States for many years, thus the perception is that the risk of contracting the disease is lower than the risk of an adverse reaction to the MMR vaccine—especially after unfounded claims linking the MMR vaccine with autism. In this scenario, parents may judge that there is little benefit from the MMR vaccine, hence no reason to take the risk of an adverse event to their child. Indeed, parent surveys have shown that many parents withheld vaccinations from their children for fear of adverse ...