Sample Essay On Cause And Effect: Decrease Of Vaccinated Children In The Area

Since the late 1970’s, there has been a growing trend in the United States involving our children and vaccinations. Once thought to be a major medical breakthrough, there has been speculation in recent decades that has made many parents nervous about vaccinations, convincing them inoculations will cause their children to become autistic, or develop epilepsy. The levels of mercury have also been speculated upon in multiple books, also causing unrest in many parents. Those who choose to raise their children in a more natural way sometimes choose not to vaccinate their children, despite the possible consequences. There are several causes to this, and there are several correlating effects.
As stated, one cause of parents not vaccinating their children is the possibility that vaccinations will cause their child to become autistic or develop epilepsy. The levels of mercury are also something that worries many parents. However, in an interview conducted over the phone with Pediatrician James Thorinson, these fears are, “purely unwarranted, and the parents of such children are ignorant and irresponsible.” The catalyst for the belief that vaccinations cause autism came about in the early 1990’s, gaining steam with a paper published by Andrew Wakefield in 1998, wherein he claimed to have found a substantial link between medical vaccinations and autism in children . Parents across the nation and the world immediately began to fear for their inoculated children, and began halting the idea of inoculating their future children. The paper was a worldwide success, hailed as a medical breakthrough. However, throughout the next decade several researchers began performing follow-up work in an effort to build on Wakefield’s discovery. As they realized Wakefield had forged his studies, the research became an investigation and by 2010, Wakefield was exposed a fraud and was stripped of his license. “Unfortunately,” said Dr. Thorinson, “the damage had already been done. The medical community is still fighting the ignorance today. The fact is we need children to be vaccinated for their safety, as well as ours. Parents still do not because the fear from Wakefield’s fake study is still with them .”
While medical misinformation and fear are the greatest reasons that most parents do not vaccinate their children, there are other reasons that prevent people from doing so. For example, there is a seemingly common misconception that children do not need vaccinations anymore because the diseases the vaccines prevent simply do not exist anymore. As stated in, “Personal Belief Exemptions From School Vaccination Requirements,” many parents, “no longer believe life-threatening illnesses such as polio and measles exist because they do not occur with the tenacity they once did .” They are no longer seeing these diseases because children are vaccinated; polio, measles, and other illness that once killed children and adults are not able to become epidemics because of vaccinations. However, these parents do not understand this logic, instead believing the diseases are gone and the innoculations are no longer necessary. In reality, the innoculations are the only thing protecting us from potential epidemics. Essentially, another primary cause for the decrease in un-vaccinated children in the ignorance of parents who refuse to listen to science or the medical community.
While there are still many causes to the rise in unvaccinated children in this community, as well as across the country, it is also important to consider the causes of such an increase. For instance, as a society we use vaccinations to rely on herd immunity which, quoted from an article in Public Quarterly Affairs means, “everyone who can be vaccinated must be vaccinated in an effort to protect the medically healthy, as well as the medically feeble. To do less is ignorant and irresponsible .” Many parents believe they have the right to withhold vaccinations from their children, simulataneously believing they only impact their family, rather than their family and the rest of humanity. This is simply not true. When one personis not vaccinated, is makes the chain of society weaker. The more people who are vaccinated, the stronger society stands against life-threatening illnesses. Some individuals legitimately cannot receive vaccinations because they are allergic, or for other various reasons. These individuals rely on herd immunization; they are surrounded by vaccinated children and adults and, therefore, are less likely to be exposed to an illness that may kill them . If parents act morally permissive about their children and vaccinations, it puts more children, as well as adults who have not received boosters, at risk. The decrease in vaccinations among children places all of society in danger; an epidemic could effectively break out at any time if enough children were refused vaccinations by ignorant parents.
There are, of course, obvious effects to not vaccinationg a child; however, the decrease in vaccinations has unexpected consequences, as well, according to Amy Parker’s blog, “Growing Up Unvaccinated.” Throughout her blog posts, she recounts how healthy her lifestyle was, having been raised by typical health-crazed hippies of the 1970’s . Living off a diet of all natural fruits, vegetables, and grass fed, hormone free meat, she also exercised by walking everywhere, dancing twice a week, and took supplements every day. Furthermore, Parker was breastfed for over a year, and was not allowed sugar until she was one year old. She was, for all intents and purposes, a doctor’s health dream. However, despite her healthy lifestyle, she contracted, “measles, mumps, rubella, a type of viral meningitis, scarlatina, whooping cough, yearly tonsilitis,” chicken pox, and later in her adult life a preventable strain of HPV, all which could have been avoided by vaccinations her parents denied her for fear of unhealthy complications . Though she survived her childhood illnesses, she also mentions several people she grew up with who contracted illnesses ending more seriously than hers; some died. Moreover, she states that though she does not regret her childhood or the way she was raised, her, “personal experience prompts me to vaccinate my children and myself .” Many anti-vaccination oriented parents neglect to vaccinate their children because they believe they are beginning a revolution; their children will see the benefits and will continue the cycle. It appears, though, that the children who are forced to live without vaccinations only remember how miserable the illnesses made them feel, further prompting them to vaccinate their children in an effort to give them a better life. Though the decrease in vaccinated children was not as sufficient in the 1970’s as it is now, the blog entry suggests society’s next generation will have an abundance of children who experience many preventable childhood illnesses. They will then have no trouble vaccination their future children consequently, because they understand firsthand what it is like to not be vaccinated.
In sum, there are several causes and effects to the decrease in childhood vaccinations. Many parents are still afraid to vaccinate their children because they refuse to believe the scientific proof refuting the doctor’s claims about vaccinations and autism. Some individuals also do not believe the illnesses vaccinations save us from exist any longer, therefore making the vaccinations unnecessary. The consequences of these actions include many things. For example, those who simply cannot be vaccinated for legitimate reasons can no longer rely on herd immunity, and the added children without vaccinations effectively weaken society’s health as a unit. Furthermore, children who are not vaccinated often grow up fervently supporting vaccinations for their own children, effectively dashing parents’ dreams of creating a “healthy, all-natural” society, wherein nobody is vaccinated and we all live off nuts and berries.

Works Cited

Diekema, Douglas S. "Personal Belief Exemptions From School Vaccination Requirements." Annual Review of Public Health (2014): 275-292.
Doctor James Thorinson. 23 March 2015. Interview.
Navin, Mark. "Resisting Moral Permissiveness about Vaccine Refusal." Public Quarterly Affairs (2012): 69-85.
Parker, Amy. "Growing Up Unvaccinated." Voices for Vaccines. 2014.