Society is technologically the most advanced it’s ever been, religion and science have lived in the same world for decades now. So many problems have been solved with new discoveries, anti-vaxxers ignore data and use past mistakes as meaningless points in their argument. Humans have extended the life expectancy with innovative modern medicine, a woman’s chance of surviving childbirth skyrocketed after a doctor discovered the brilliance of washing hands. Vaccinations have increased the survival rate in children of common diseases, and have eradicated measles in the early 2000s. With a rocky beginning, trust has been slowly built up only to crumble with hearsay on social media platforms. Anti-Vaxxers are irresponsible parents, who refuse guidance from the government, turn their back on modern science, and disregard the health of others.
Past beliefs have adapted in light of recent discoveries. Any disdain towards vaccines from religious superiors are few and far between, “from Buddhists to Catholics, via Islam and even Mormons”, are all endorsing the ethics of vaccinations (Aaronovitch, David). Despite this, religion is one of the three common exemptions to mandatory Measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccinations. The other two being medical purposes (some kids show signs of being allergic to shots), and “personal/philosophical” reasons. All understandable, the United States of America prides itself on being free, religiously we are free, overall we are free. The exemptions gave parents the freedom to back out of what they disagree too. Many people are exercising their right to ignore common sense. It’s become a problem as herd immunity (a scientific term for when the total number of vaccinated is at least 95%) is no longer in effect in some schools. An example is a school that is largely attended by kids of the same religious background, thus the majority not vaccinated.
There no easy solution to that predicament. In 2019, a rumor of doctors giving “bad batches” of vaccines to ultra-orthodox Jewish children and a false claim that vaccines could be creating new strains of measles cause a upraise in the Jewish community (Aaronovitch, David). Scientifically it’s possible the strain is changing. We see this in the flu yearly. And personally religious exemptions should absolutely stay legal. Medical complications are of course going to stay, it’s the personal/philosophical cause that is being abused. The Washington State Department of health backed each exemption up until now. Vashon, a city in Washinton had a terrible outbreak of measles, which was previously eradicated in the U.S. early 2000s. Because of the incredibly high amount of people that believe themselves above science State legislators are reviewing the exemptions, on their second reading, “would remove the personal and philosophical exemption for MMR vaccine for school entry” (Kanagy, Mari). The government can no longer trust the masses to choose correctly. Schools and cities will have massive outbreaks of once unseen diseases. It’s a daunting world out there, one where parents won’t accept losing full-body independence, people won’t simply accept the government as a third-party say in their child’s health.
The fear of vaccines should not be laughed at or mocked. It stems from people in power spreading false information, either without an understanding of the benefits or a misunderstanding of data. Sometime in the eighteenth-century Edward Jenner concocted a smallpox vaccine, this angered religious groups (Garlick Hattie). Leaving the “every day” god-fearing people to reject it. Then Andrew Wakefield’s risible paper published in 1998 linked the MMR vaccine to autism (Garlick, Hattie). In Garlick’s article, a mother named Annabel had two children. The oldest one had some routine vaccinations while her daughter has none. Her sole concerns are dated to the fifties when “a licensed polio vaccine proved to be defective and resulted in the deaths of several children…”, an exact quote from Annabel: “Even though the methodology for making them had totally changed… combined with knowing quite a bit of the harmful side-effects of a lot of medicines, have fed into my reluctance”(Garlick, Hattie). Within her reasoning, she explicitly said the way of making the vaccine has changed.
Of course, this is only one of the many anti-vaxxers takes on the situation. But there is an understanding that modern vaccines are improving, the “overnight autism” scandal was twenty years ago. The first smallpox vaccine was bound to fail a couple of times, one risk was being infected with the same disease it should’ve stopped (Capurro, Gabriela). All in all, years ago having a fear of vaccines was not irrational, and with current social media inconstant guidance goes around. Parents have to navigate millions of stories and invalidated research papers, along with friends’ personal accounts. Parents are turning their backs to Modern-day science.
Luckily the number of parents who wholly refuse life-saving vaccinations is small, the ability to quickly spread harebrained ideas only amplifies with social media. The double-edged sword in this is the new term “vaccine-hesitant”, they generally vaccinate their children but often question the necessity, pick and choose what to get, and delay vaccines (Capurro, Gabriela). A survey was done with 1000 parents of young children had found the morals of purity and liberty were most associated with so-called vaccine hesitancy (Benecke, Olivia). We have some who pride themselves on individualism, abusing freedoms promised to us. And others still stuck on vaccination not beings God’s will, therefore “unpure”. Then some sill believe vaccination causes autism, even if Andrew Wakefield was speaking a sliver of truth this group of people has agreed they’d rather have a dead kid then one with autism.
Another problem for another day. Largely individuals have been given the right of self-governance, the right to analyze risks, and come to their own conclusion. Identifying anti-vaxxers is difficult, the lack of clear socio-demographic characteristics makes it hard to spot in a crowd A noteworthy point, surveys are showing vaccine-hesitant parents are better educated, wealthy, and “more involved in their child’s upbringing and health” (Capurro, Gabriela). More research should be done on the socio-behavioral variables that influence vaccinate-hesitant parents, to increase the effectiveness of the response campaign to prevent ignorant rumors (Benecke, Olivia). It’s unclear as to if the government should enforce more regulations to appease herd immunity, or if the medical professional need to step up to inform parents of risk-free options, not just for one kid, but for the whole community. Parents should be feeling the obligation to make public places safe for kids who lack the luxury of vaccination.
Maybe it’s no cause for concern, people like Haru, a Londoner that works in music who’s one-year-old has gotten no vaccines, claim “I’m sure if people started dying in big numbers, I’d be a lot more concerned… I’m far more worried about pollution.” (Garlick Hattie). How many people have to die before trusting science? Anti-vaxxers seem to approve gambling their children’s lives because they distrust government guidance, won’t admit modern medicine has improved, and lack empathy to others without the ability to receive a vaccine. We’ve had first-hand experience with just one pandemic, 2020 had been ruined for many. Protestors gather in front of official buildings, out of distaste of the social distancing we’re practicing. If a vaccination for COVID-19 is released, will anti-vaxxers still neglect the tragedy with incurable diseases?
