Maya L., Alyssa R., Erin H., Guadalupe H., Nathan P., Ashley C.
Presently, a lot of controversy exists over whether or not to vaccinate children in the United States.
Something we have seen locally even, with Chico’s measles outbreak. The debate over whether or not to vaccinate children has existed since a French movement in 1763. At the time, people knew less about medicine and sanitation. The argument faded until a bad batch of vaccines was distributed in Berkley circa 1955. 40,000 people were infected, 55 paralyzed, and 5 died. Hesitation around vaccines in the San Francisco bay area became commonplace in following years. However, people were not truly deterred from common vaccines until a British doctor published a study linking autism to the MMR vaccine. It was not until 2011 that his work was proven fraudulent and discredited. Of course, after 13 years the damage had been done. Celebrities like Jenny McCarthy began speaking out about how their children had autism because they were vaccinated. No one in the United States died from the measles until 2015, because the parents of a young boy in Washington decided against vaccination.
There are different debates throughout this topic of child vaccination and the media depicts multiple perspectives. Since the year 2011, when the scandal broke out into media between children receiving vaccinations vs children not receiving vaccinations, many articles have been published on the controversial topic. As a whole we agree that it is essential to get children vaccinated. Research has indicated that vaccines help with the spread of diseases. The spread of the life threatening and highly contagious disease known as the measles out broke again in 2011 and was not taken lightly. Children who weren’t vaccinated were banned from being in certain areas as well as receiving a fine up to $500. A number of people who contracted the vaccine were at a record high with 82,500 reported cases and 72 deaths from measles.
There are many families that do not believe in vaccinating their children, they believe that the vaccinations cause many problems within their child. For example, many believe that vaccinations are the cause of autism. Although, there are many professionals that have proved that theory to be false, there are still believers. Many do not vaccinate due to their personal beliefs on the subject. There are also some who do not vaccinate because the disease is not prevalent anymore. For instance, measles. With the outbreak of measles in Chico, California many were not able to go into the emergency room if they had certain symptoms. The vaccinations are given to children when they are very young, but the newborn infants are not given them, making them susceptible to the virus. The outbreak happened in Chico State’s housing, many of the students received emails regarding measles and what to do if they had some symptoms. There are many other diseases that can hurt the lives of many if more and more people decide not to vaccinate their children.
Many people link anti vaccination with the name Andrew Wakefield. Andrew Wakefield is well known for helping spark the interest in anti vaccination by telling everyone that the MMR vaccination causes autism via false and fake studies. Wakefield has since lost his credibility in 2010 when the British General Medical Council found him guilty of 3 dozen charges. They basically proved that there was a conflict of interests as Wakefield was a gastroenterologist and he would be able to profit marginally off of people who refuse to vaccinate their children. This gave him a label of dishonest and irresponsible. Even though science has proved him wrong time and time again, people continue to use him as a resource when citing their reasons to not vaccinate their children. In 2016, he directed Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe which many now use as their “evidence” for all the damages that vaccinating your children can cause.
In 2005 he had conducted a study with 100 autistic children, and 200 without autism. They studied blood samples from the children and found that 99% of the samples were free of the measles virus, and of the 3 blood samples in which the measles virus was found, 1 was autistic and the other 2 were not.
This shows that there is no correlation between MMR vaccinations and autism.
In society the stigma of motherhood is well known, many people believe that mother’s should be the primary caretaker of children. Which is why we see so many women who believe in Anti-Vaccination, women are supposed to be a ‘super mom’ and protect their children from everything. So mothers are protecting them from ‘diseases’ that supposedly come from vaccinations. Women are more vocal about vaccinations than men, women take to media to share their beliefs on the issue. There are not as many fathers that take to Facebook or Twitter to share their opinions on vaccinations. It could be because of the stigma society has coined around being the ‘World’s Best Mom’.
Artifact Analysis
One media artifact that we found doesn’t support our topic is a documentary called Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe. This documentary covers the controversial topic of whether or not the MMR (Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine) is linked to autism. This media doesn’t agree with our topic of pro vaccination because it is showing cases of children that have gotten vaccinated and were negatively affected by it. There are tons of interviews with doctors, parents, politicians, and pharmaceutical insiders throughout the documentary stating their positions on the injuries due to vaccines. Therefore, the standpoint of this documentary is anti-vaccination supporters. The audience is towards pro-vaccination supporters to try and get those people to understand why they shouldn’t be giving their children vaccines. This media artifact is dangerous because it promotes the anti vaccination side of the argument and is trying to get pro vaccination supporters on the other side of the argument.
Another media artifact that supports giving children vaccinations is vaccines.gov , which is obviously a government website. This website is managed by the US Department of Health and Human Services and gives reasons why it is smart to vaccinate children. The site claims that vaccinations will save the lives of children, that it is proven to be safe and effective, that is protects others that you care about, that they can help save your family time and money, and they protect future generations. They use credible resources to support their claims and defend their message that all children should be vaccinated such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is effective because it is a credible source trying to persuade anti vaccination supporters to understand how the effects of vaccinations aren’t bad at all.
Resources
January 2018, Vaccines.gov, Five Important Reasons to Vaccinate Your Child
Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe