Autism is defined as a developmental disorder leading to neurological processing differences. Individuals with autism tend to struggle with social behavior, communication, and learning. Autism is believed to be caused in part by genetic and environmental factors. There has been a surge in the amount of autism diagnoses since the early 2000s. Many individuals have turned to vaccines as the source of autism development. This distrust of vaccines stems from an ingredient called thimerosal, a mercury based preservative. However, in a study conducted by the institute of medicine, the connection between thimerosal and autism was invalidated. Further investigation has been implemented on the ingredients of vaccines and its relation to autism, however, there have been no connections.
This poses the question, why is the anti-vaccination movement gaining traction? It seems as if a combination of poorly executed studies, misinformed parents, and selfish politics has led to a drastic drop in vaccination rates. The use of vaccines as a method to politically polarize groups of people has led to unfortunate consequences. As a result, there has been a surge in the presence of (almost) previously eradicated diseases. This has caused a mass amount of casualties within a childhood population and further endangered at-risk individuals who are unable to be vaccinated.
As future health professionals and educated members of the science community, I think there’s an obligation to end the spread of misinformation regarding vaccines. This fits in with the beneficence principle, which is to value the wellbeing and health of the patient. Vaccines save lives, and it’s important that we continue to encourage their use. Furthermore, vaccinations closely align with the non-maleficence principle. Although vaccines cause a moment of discomfort and pain, these symptoms are significantly better and more mild than what the disease itself would cause. Hopefully we can end the stigma around vaccines and value the health of others over the gain of political parties.
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-asd
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/signs.html
https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10997/immunization-safety-review-vaccines-and-autism
This is an interesting problem in society at the moment. Due to Covid-19, we have seen an increased in a number of parents choosing not to vaccinate their children, fearing that vaccine might cause autism. I believe the idea that vaccine lead to ASD was first introduced by Dr. Wakefield in a retracted-paper, in which he and his colleagues claimed that there was a link between the MMR vaccine and ASD in his 12 studied subjects. However, upon investigation, the General Medical Council of Britain found that the study was heavily bias and unethically done. The research received money from people who were suing vaccine manufacturers at the time, as well as the researcher would latter use the study to promote for his own kind of MMR vaccine. Moreover, so many following researches have been done to tried and replicate the results but failed, further proving that the paper was a hoax.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about the need to end this misinformation since vaccination offers extremely valuable source of protection against diseases, such as Measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, influenza, covid, ....
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831678/