Staff Editorial
Misinformation is not only dangerous, it also can be deadly.
The World Health Organization listed “vaccine hesitancy” as one of the top 10 threats to global health in 2019. Vaccinations save millions of lives globally, protecting the vaccinated from preventable diseases. A wave against vaccinating all together, however, is once again rising and diseases that were nearly knocked out are coming back and hitting hard.
Between Jan. 1 and March 14 there were 268 reported cases of the measles in 15 states. In 2018, there were 372 cases and a third as many the year before. Anti-vaxxers, as they are called, are not the sole reason for a rise in disease, but they are most affected and most vulnerable to outbreaks like these.
In the 1990s, a study was published that purportedly linked the MMR vaccine, which treated measles, mumps and rubella, with cases of autism. This study has been debunked by hundreds if not thousands of further experiments and was retracted by the original publication and author in recent years, who finally admitted the research was fabricated. While there is no one answer for what brought about a rise in autism, a partial explanation is that doctors and researchers now know more about the condition and how to diagnose it correctly and early. Autism has been proven time and again to not be caused by vaccines, as evidenced in a recent Danish study that looked at 650,000 children over 10 years and found no correlation.
Despite the overwhelming evidence against these claims, there is a lively movement on and offline, sharing “facts” and spreading lies like wildfire. There is some validity to some claims — vaccinations have caused issues in children, such as in past decades when some contained more heavy metals that led to health problems. A dose too strong may hurt a child and too weak a dose may leave them vulnerable.
With modern technology there are fewer mistakes like those. Vaccinations can be spread out, in smaller doses over a longer period of time, to minimize side effects.
Earlier this year, a 6-year-old boy from Oregon nearly died from tetanus, a disease the state had not seen in 30 years because it had been essentially eliminated via vaccinations. The DTaP vaccine, which protects against tetanus, is given in five increments, first in infancy, then early childhood and then recommended every 10 years to after that. This boy’s parents chose not to have him vaccinated. When the boy cut his head while playing outside last year, his parents stitched the wound themselves. Not long afterwards, he suffered spasms and intense pain. He was finally taken to the hospital and remained in the ICU for 35 days, treated with a ventilator, a dark room and months of recuperating. He was finally vaccinated and discharged after two and a half months in the hospital and a rehabilitation facility. His family was left with a hospital bill of more than $800,000.
While medical costs run high if a preventable disease is contracted by unimmunized individuals — children who have no say in the matter — the human cost is much higher.
Despite potential downsides and risks, evidence shows across the board that diseases prevented by vaccinations are much more dangerous and fatal than the vaccines themselves. Parents strictly against vaccinations truly think they are protecting their children, but they are leaving them vulnerable to diseases no one with access to vaccines should have to worry about in 2019.