Saturday, April 4, 2009
Vaccination
Vaccinations, after application to the recipient, ostensibly remove any chance of contracting the targeted virus, such as polio, flu, etc. However, as recently last decade, the effectiveness of vaccines was questioned, as Carroll cites a 1994 survey of 171 chiropractors, who stated their belief that there was no proof as to the validity of the vaccination process and a 1998 survey of Boston chiropractors, a third of whom did not support prescribing vaccines for their patients. This brings up the questions: What are the benefits of vaccines? How do they work? What are the arguments against them not stated by Carroll? Of the ones listed by Carroll, which are valid concerns? Which aren't? Are there any potential vaccines on the horizon?
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There is lots of controversy over whether vaccinations should be administered or not for various reasons. The main source of controversy is whether vaccines are effective in preventing diseases. Many believe that all health benefits for humans have come because of better living conditions, such as better diets and sanitation; these people say vaccines have done nothing to make our lives healthier. Many people also say that immunity to diseases given by vaccines is only temporary, and “boosters” must be given time after time in order to stay completely immune to diseases.
ReplyDeleteThis leads to a second point of controversy, which is that vaccines cost too much and that they are only used as a “profit motive.” First of all, many of the diseases faced by humans today are in third-world countries that are extremely poor and have no money to pay for vaccinations. Therefore, many believe that vaccines are useless, since those that can buy them don’t need them, and those that can’t buy them do need them. Also, since more and more vaccinations need to be administered in order to stay immune to a disease, patients need to continue paying more and more. Many see this as a scheme for doctors and other medical workers to make excessive amounts of money.
A recent controversy over vaccination has come up that deals with a MMR vaccine, which is a combination of three live but attenuated (“deactivated”) viruses. In 1998, the British medical journal The Lancet claimed that a MMR vaccine that was used to create immunity for measles, mumps, and rubella actually causes autism in patients. However, scientific studies have showed that there is has been no credible link between this virus and autism. People in Britain still aren’t taking the vaccine because of fear, and in 2008, measles was declared an endemic in Britain for the first time in 14 years.
Another controversy is that people that survive with certain diseases become more immune than if they had taken a vaccine in the first place. One study showed that children that survived from the disease diphtheria had an immunity that lasted longer than in children who were vaccinated. Other controversies stem from the fact that other forms of medicine, such as chiropractic, can help more than vaccines. Although, it should be known that vaccines did help end smallpox and almost end polio. People see vaccination in many different ways, but it is clear that millions of humans were made healthier due to vaccination and prevention of harmful diseases.
Sources:
http://www.know-vaccines.org/controversy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_controversy#Financial_motives
http://autism.about.com/od/causesofautism/a/MMRVaccine.htm
The body’s immune system is made up of special ells call B-cells which fight off infection. These cells are highly specialized and they remember the diseases they have fought so if it were to return the body knows how to fight off the disease more effectively and the person is much less likely to contract the disease again. Before vaccines, the only way for a person B-cells to gain new knowledge, per se, on how to fight diseases was to actually experience the illness and the person is at risk of death if the body is unsuccessful at fighting it off. Vaccines are basically a weakened or killed form of a disease that is injected into the bloodstream. Two common methods of weakening the virus are by taking away its ability to reproduce rapidly or simply by killing the virus all together using chemicals in a laboratory setting. The body reacts as if it was any other pathogen and attacks the vaccine. This allows the B-cells to create a memory record of that specific pathogen and produce antibodies to fight it off. That way, if the person were to ever come into contact with a real strain of the disease, their body would already have the necessary tools to fight it off and therefore would not get sick or at least not as sick as they would have without the vaccination.
ReplyDeleteThe most obvious benefit for vaccination is that it saves lives. By preparing the body early for potentially harmful diseases, a person’s chances of survival are greatly increased. Some will even go as far as to say that one of the reasons parents are more content to have less children is because they can be relatively certain that their child will survive into adulthood – something that could not be assumed before vaccinations. A 2007 study performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that death rates for 13 diseases that can be prevented by childhood vaccinations were at an all time low in the U.S. In fact, 9 of these diseases saw over a 90% drop in deaths and hospitalizations and 3 diseases (smallpox, diphtheria, and polio) saw a 100% drop.
Carroll outlines six of the major arguments that chiropractors have about vaccinations on p 231 – 233: “doubt the science”, “question the motives and integrity of scientists”, “magnify disagreements among scientists, and cite gadflies as authorities”, “exaggerate potential harm”, “appeal to personal freedom”, and “acceptance repudiates key philosophy”. It appears to me that five out of the six are more issues of personal beliefs and ideals rather than actual scientific reasons against vaccinations. It is difficult to deny that vaccines work – studies have shown the correlations between vaccinations and hospitalization and death rates however many chiropractors simply do not believe in vaccines in that they do not like the principle behind them. To me, their one valid argument against them are the risks. Every vaccine carries its own risk and people must be notified of these risks before receiving the vaccination. Vaccines can have any range of adverse effects from soreness and fever to death. In this way there are definite risks and chiropractors as well as any other anti-vaccine supports do have a valid point. However, it is also important to note that the number of cases of adverse effects is dwarfed by the number of people who receive the vaccination and experience no negative effects and are also protected from the disease.
One risk of accination that has drawn a lot of attention is the presence of thimerosol, a type of mercury, in vaccines which supposedly causes autism. However, according to a New York Times article, “Numerous studies have shown no link between autism and either vaccines or the preservative [thimerosol]”.
New vaccines are continually being researched and tested. They are developed as new problems arise and are always changing. Flu shots for example are continually changing as the flu virus changes and the vaccine is always being adjusted in order to ensure that it is capable of preventing the wide range of flu strains present in today’s society.
Sources:
http://www.unlessthelordmagazine.com/articles/Vaccines%20Prt%201.htm
http://health.nytimes.com/ref/health/healthguide/esn-vaccinations-ess.html
http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/vaccination.htm
http://www.wisegeek.com/how-do-vaccines-work.htm
http://www.wisegeek.com/how-do-vaccines-work.htm
There are many controversies surrounding vaccinations, due to several reasons. One of the primary reasons, cited by Carroll, is that there is some risk that a vaccination can cause the illness it intends to prevent. That is because in some cases the weakened form of the pathogen can overcome the immune system of the person receiving the vaccine. This usually happens when the immune system of the person has been previously weekend by some other disease. However this is not a valid argument, as statistics show that between 1991 and 2001, there was only one adverse reaction per 10,000 vaccines. And of those reactions only fourteen percent were serious; the other 86% were usually slight fevers and swelling. As it is irrational to assume that any medical action taken is 100% without risk, the small minority of adverse reactions to vaccines cannot be seen as grounds to classify vaccines as being overly dangerous.
ReplyDeleteCarroll also cites that some believe vaccinations are a corporate ploy for profits rather than an attempt to aid disease control. However this argument is fundamentally flawed due to the fact that vaccinations make up only 1.5% of total pharmaceutical profits. Because of the fact that vaccines are such a small source of revenue, and the extremely high cost of producing vaccines, it is illogical to assume that vaccinations would be an area for corporations to pad profits. Also there is indisputable statistic evidence as to vaccines effectiveness, making the argument even less likely.
The primary benefit of vaccines is that they are highly effective at fighting many diseases. The reported cases of Haemophilus influenzae have dropped by 98.62 after the advent of the Hib vaccine, cases of hib meningitis dropped from over 25 cases per 100,000 people to under 1 case per 100,000 people, the measles vaccine caused a 99.95% drop in measles cases, mumps cases were reduced by 99.57% after its vaccine was released, Pertussis vaccine reduced pertussis cases by 97.56%, polio was eradicated, and Rubella vaccine reduced rubella cases by 99.64%, and congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) deaths by 99.99% (all data pertains only to the U.S.). Such data proves beyond a reasonable doubt the extreme effectiveness of vaccines in preventing and fighting disease.
http://www.vaccineethics.org/issue_briefs/industry.php
http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/concepts/intro6.htm
http://www.bcm.edu/findings/vol1/is8/03aug_m.htm
The body’s immune system is made up of special cells called B-cells which fight off infection. These cells are highly specialized and they remember the diseases they have fought, so if it were to return, the body knows how to fight off the disease more effectively and the person is much less likely to contract the disease again. Before vaccines, the only way for a person’s B-cells to gain new knowledge, per se, on how to fight diseases was to actually experience the illness and the person is at risk of death if the body is unsuccessful at fighting it off. Vaccines are basically a weakened or killed form of a disease that is injected into the bloodstream. Two common methods of weakening the virus are by taking away its ability to reproduce rapidly or simply by killing the virus all together using chemicals in a laboratory setting. The body reacts as if it was any other pathogen and attacks the vaccine. This allows the B-cells to create a memory record of that specific pathogen and produce antibodies to fight it off. That way, if the person were to ever come into contact with a real strain of the disease, their body would already have the necessary tools to fight it off and therefore would not get sick or at least not as sick as they would have without the vaccination.
ReplyDeleteThe most obvious benefit for vaccination is that it saves lives. By preparing the body early for potentially harmful diseases, a person’s chances of survival are greatly increased. Some will even go as far as to say that one of the reasons parents are more content to have less children is because they can be relatively certain that their child will survive into adulthood – something that could not be assumed before vaccinations. A 2007 study performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that death rates for 13 diseases that can be prevented by childhood vaccinations were at an all time low in the U.S. In fact, 9 of these diseases saw over a 90% drop in deaths and hospitalizations and 3 diseases (smallpox, diphtheria, and polio) saw a 100% drop.
Carroll outlines six of the major arguments that chiropractors have about vaccinations on p 231 – 233: “doubt the science”, “question the motives and integrity of scientists”, “magnify disagreements among scientists, and cite gadflies as authorities”, “exaggerate potential harm”, “appeal to personal freedom”, and “acceptance repudiates key philosophy”. It appears to me that five out of the six are more issues of personal beliefs and ideals rather than actual scientific reasons against vaccinations. It is difficult to deny that vaccines work – studies have shown the correlations between vaccinations and hospitalization and death rates. However, many chiropractors simply do not believe in vaccines in that they do not like the principle behind them. To me, their one valid argument against them is the risks. Every vaccine carries its own risk and people must be notified of these risks before receiving the vaccination. Vaccines can have any range of adverse effects from soreness and fever to death. In this way there are definite risks and chiropractors as well as any other anti-vaccine supporters do have a valid point. However, it is also important to note that the number of cases of adverse effects is dwarfed by the number of people who receive vaccinations and experience no negative effects and are also protected from the disease.
One risk of vaccination that has drawn a lot of attention is the presence of thimerosol, a type of mercury, in vaccines which supposedly causes autism. However, according to a New York Times article, “Numerous studies have shown no link between autism and either vaccines or the preservative [thimerosol]”.
New vaccines are continually being researched and tested. They are developed as new problems arise and are always changing. Flu shots for example are continually changing as the flu virus changes. The vaccine is always being adjusted in order to ensure that it is capable of preventing the wide range of flu strains present in today’s society.
Sources:
http://www.unlessthelordmagazine.com/articles/Vaccines%20Prt%201.htm
http://health.nytimes.com/ref/health/healthguide/esn-vaccinations-ess.html
http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/vaccination.htm
http://www.wisegeek.com/how-do-vaccines-work.htm
http://www.wisegeek.com/how-do-vaccines-work.htm
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