Parents and Their Decisions to Vaccinate Their Children
Vaccines are one of the greatest inventions in preventing death and disease. With the ongoing debate of vaccinating children, the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine has come to an all time low. Parents used to know people who died and suffered from diseases and now with vaccines there are less parents seeing people die from the disease, they are now suffering from seeing people being ‘damaged’ from vaccines. Parent’s fear increased due to the absence of faith in the government as well as health organizations leading to a higher anti-vaccine population.
With the boom in technology approximately 75% of American households have access to the Internet, according to the article, “Anti-Vaccination Movement and Parental Refusals of Immunization of Children in USA”, 16% of those users looked up vaccine related inquiry’s of that 16% half of them believed the information that they read. The majorities of the sources were misleading and had information that was outdated and contained personal mentions.
Parents, Media & Child Vaccinations
The Media's infuluence on Parents desire to vaccinate their children
The first wave of the Anti-Vaccine movement occurred in 1982 in D.C. when WRC- TV aired a segment to the public about the DTP vaccine, which was used for Whopping cough, pertussis and tetanus. The segment explained that the vaccination was linked with brain damage, delayed mental and motor development and seizures. This had such a large impact on the public, which lead to a dramatic decrease in parents vaccinating their children around the world.
There was another instance that lead to the fear of vaccines in regard to parents vaccinating their children. It was a significant time for the anti- vaccine movement when Dr. A Wakefield published an article in 1998, which connected the MMR vaccine to autism.
Politicians, former Presidents, and Celebrities have been well known to fight against the MMR Vaccine, claiming that there is a connection to autism. U.S. Senator John Kerry, Jenny McCarthy, and former husband Jim Carey spoke out publicly to help raise awareness that the vaccine causes autism. After lengthy research there has been no proof that there is a connection between the two. Dr. A. Wakefield’s article was examined and deemed unethical and the publication withdrew the link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
Vaccination rates have decreased dramatically; although, they are noted for being an important success in greatly reducing the Measles Virus infection rates durin the 20th and 21st centuries.
The parents who delayed or didn’t get their children vaccinated did so because they knew more of the potential risks and believed that the outcome of the vaccines were less than the benefits. The internet is the number one tool that gives parents their ideas on whether or not they should vaccinate their children.
References
Jolley, D. & Douglas, K. M. (2014). The effects of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories on vaccination intentions. PLoS ONE, 9(2): e89177. doi:
10.1371/journal.pone.0089177
Ołpiński, M. (2012). Anti-vaccination movement and parental refusals of immunization of children in the USA. Science Direct, 87(4), 381-385. doi:
10.1016/j.pepo.2012.05.003