About one month ago, the Centers for Disease Control published their 2016-17 vaccination recommendations for all individuals six months or older, marking another instance of the long war between those who advocate vaccine use and those who decry them. Indeed, for several decades the world has experienced a shift towards vaccine implementation. But with more than 71.6 percent of all U.S. children being vaccinated for a broad range of diseases as of 2014, according to the CDC, the lingering 28.4 percent can still bring devastating and debilitating consequences to our national population. What we need is a national, all-encompassing child vaccinations program.
Vaccinations are an important step towards achieving acceptable global public health. It is imperative that children are vaccinated to prevent the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases from causing an endemic. Vaccines for polio, diphtheria, MMR and smallpox have helped drastically reduce repugnant, virulent diseases by more than 99 percent, diseases which once left many debilitated or dead. By refusing to vaccinate, individuals not only put their child at severe risk for contraction of several deadly diseases, but also themselves, their family and their community.
The statistics of vaccines success are well documented and vaccines are only improving as the scientific community continues to remain meticulous at optimizing efficacy and potency of vaccinations. For example, polio is a disease that is largely characterized by severe muscle weakness and dystrophy, and also includes gastrointestinal abnormalities like nausea, emesis and cysts among others. The polio vaccine, introduced in 1953 and commercialized by the WHO in 1988, has significantly reduced the prevalence of the disease into non-existence, according to the CDC. Similarly, smallpox, a disease that causes severe skin reactions with pus-filled pustules diffusely covering the entire body, has technically been eradicated as of 1980 by Edward Jenner’s serendipitous discovery of the vaccine from cows. Yet, the World Health Organization reports indicate about 350 million people died from smallpox before the 1980 eradication. However, without diligent and total vaccination measures, we risk the chance of a dormant strain infecting our community once more.
Vaccinations have become increasingly affordable and mainstream in the past decade, with several academic institutions preventing those who are not vaccinated from participating in school-related events, playing sports or even attending the institution altogether. With that being said, vaccines are not perfect. For example, MMR causes a low platelet count and TDAP may cause cerebral encephalitis. However, the choice not to vaccinate far outweighs the vaccine symptoms as compared to death from measles, tetanus, diphtheria or pertussis. The same can be said about automobiles. In the United States, the chance of death from a motor vehicle accident is higher than that from a vaccine. Yet, the 90 percent of licensed Americans still run the risk of driving. Moreover, there is negligible opposition against the use of automobiles on a consistent basis.
There are some who advocate against child vaccination, but their arguments are unfounded. According to a 1998 study performed by Dr. Wakefield, MMR vaccines correlate with autism; however, this one study was the only one to reach such a conclusion and its main premise has been debunked due to procedural error, sample selection and bias. Similarly, several believe that the administration of vaccines with preservatives is deleterious to infant health; however, the prevalence of these preservatives have been significantly reduced in recent years and have been cleared by the CDC to have minimal effects on infant health. Still others believe it is better for children to develop natural immunization, but vaccines are a premier way to achieve natural immunization. They provide a disease-resembling agent for the infant immune system to eradicate as well as archive for future confrontation. By providing booster doses, the immunity against disease can be lifelong without the invasiveness of true disease.
So, as we flock to our neighborhood pharmacy this fall to vaccinate ourselves and our loved ones, fated to wait in an exceptionally long lines, we must remember this is not another innocuous errand that we have to run. Rather, vaccination, whether for influenza, MMR, smallpox or otherwise, are critical in upholding the strong public health standards that protect our community. Medicine has come a long way in the past several decades, and it would be foolish not to take advantage of all that vaccinations have to offer.
Sean Sequeira is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at s.sequeira@cavalierdaily.com.
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