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As my co-workers and I clattered on our keyboards this week, the topic of vaccines came up.
I was surprised that several of them were opposed to getting flu shots. Digging a little deeper, I discovered that there was some opposition to vaccines in general.
I can’t say that I am really going to feel sorry if any of these skeptics get the flu. Although the flu can be deadly, most healthy adults are laid up for a while and that’s that.
However, this mistrust of vaccines is becoming an alarming trend in the United States.
It threatens to make rare diseases — diseases that are killers of small children — rise up as epidemics.
In countries where vaccines are not available, the death rate for children younger than five is high.
In the United States just 100 years ago, children often were not named in early childhood because of the high child mortality from diseases we now consider rare.
Let’s not forget the suffering that a child would have to deal with from an illness that a simple shot could prevent.
Let’s take, for example, pertussis, which also is known as whooping cough.
The illness causes very severe coughing that can last for months. A health professional told me once that people have been known to cough so hard they have cracked ribs.
Whooping cough can lead to pneumonia and death in small children and the elderly.
Tetanus is a concern for both children and adults and is ever present around us in soil and water. The bacteria that causes it usually enters the blood stream through a puncture or laceration.
Symptoms can include seizure, convulsions, difficulty swallowing, fever, elevated blood pressure and rapid heartbeat.
That doesn’t sound like fun to me. Bring on the shot.
Tetanus is fatal in 11 percent of cases. That rate rises to 22 percent in people who have never been vaccinated.
So let’s look at the other side of the coin for a moment.
Some parents have shied away from vaccines because of the rumor that vaccines can cause autism.
An article in The Lancet published in the late 1990s linked the MMR vaccine to autism.
The author was later linked to litigants against a vaccine manufacturer.
Under review, that study was proven to be flawed, and The Lancet ultimately printed a retraction to the article.
Furthermore, in 2009, a federal court ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the MMR vaccine caused autism in three test cases.
As my co-workers and I clattered on our keyboards this week, the topic of vaccines came up.
I was surprised that several of them were opposed to getting flu shots. Digging a little deeper, I discovered that there was some opposition to vaccines in general.
I can’t say that I am really going to feel sorry if any of these skeptics get the flu. Although the flu can be deadly, most healthy adults are laid up for a while and that’s that.
However, this mistrust of vaccines is becoming an alarming trend in the United States.
It threatens to make rare diseases — diseases that are killers of small children — rise up as epidemics.
In countries where vaccines are not available, the death rate for children younger than five is high.
In the United States just 100 years ago, children often were not named in early childhood because of the high child mortality from diseases we now consider rare.
Let’s not forget the suffering that a child would have to deal with from an illness that a simple shot could prevent.
Let’s take, for example, pertussis, which also is known as whooping cough.
The illness causes very severe coughing that can last for months. A health professional told me once that people have been known to cough so hard they have cracked ribs.
Whooping cough can lead to pneumonia and death in small children and the elderly.
Tetanus is a concern for both children and adults and is ever present around us in soil and water. The bacteria that causes it usually enters the blood stream through a puncture or laceration.
Symptoms can include seizure, convulsions, difficulty swallowing, fever, elevated blood pressure and rapid heartbeat.
That doesn’t sound like fun to me. Bring on the shot.
Tetanus is fatal in 11 percent of cases. That rate rises to 22 percent in people who have never been vaccinated.
So let’s look at the other side of the coin for a moment.
Some parents have shied away from vaccines because of the rumor that vaccines can cause autism.
An article in The Lancet published in the late 1990s linked the MMR vaccine to autism.
The author was later linked to litigants against a vaccine manufacturer.
Under review, that study was proven to be flawed, and The Lancet ultimately printed a retraction to the article.
Furthermore, in 2009, a federal court ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the MMR vaccine caused autism in three test cases.
Autism is a scary disease right now, because we don’t really know what causes it or how to effectively treat it.
But there also has not been any substantial proof that autism is being caused by vaccines.
We can see millions of children dying in third world countries who could have lived if they could have had the proper vaccines.
We live in a country without polio and devoid of small pox because of vaccines.
High vaccination rates are needed to keep a slew of deadly childhood diseases at bay.
Don’t fall for the scare tactics.
Vaccination is one of the most important things a parent can choose for their child. Choose for them life and health.
