Sunday, April 12, 2009

Vaccination's bad?

Examine how, on pages 231-232, Carroll explores the applications of the themes of biology in common arguments against vaccination and provide background information backed refutations to some of the points.
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3 comments:

  1. Jennifer JooApril 12, 2009 at 4:02 PM

    Carroll explains how despite the recent success of the polio vaccine, “171 chiropractors reported that one-third believed there was no scientific proof that immunization prevents disease” (230). There was also a decreasing support of vaccination amongst chiropractic students in Canada. Vaccination can boost the immune system. Immunity can be passive or active, artificial or natural. Vaccination is artificial active immunity; vaccinations can include “inactivated bacterial toxins, killed microbes, parts of microbes, and viable but weakened microbes” and they have the ability to act as a antigen and eventually, immunological memory through memory cells. Carroll then explores why supposedly educated people do not believe in the benefits of vaccination despite concrete evidence; they use several arguments to supply why they believe so and they use arguments similar to that anti-evolution groups use. The list includes doubt the science, question the motives and integrity of scientists, magnifying disagreements amongst scientists, exaggerating potential harm, appealing to personal freedom, and acceptance repudiating key philosophy.
    Chiropractors believe that there are other reasons that logically explain the disappearance of certain diseases. They believe that disease occurs in a cyclical pattern and thus, the decline of polio was natural. They ignore factors such as clinical trials and instead say that the causes such as more sanitation led to less disease; for example, Haemophilus influenzae decreased by 99% since the induction of its vaccination (source: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5111a4.htm). Doubters also can point to scientists and say that they want to make more money and that is why they are promoting certain vaccines. For example, a three-part HPV vaccine costs approximately 400 dollars (source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/health/17vaccine.html?scp=8&sq=hpv&st=cse) and this is one of the examples that anti-vaccine groups use to prove that pharmaceutical companies are greedy.
    Chiropractors also exploit differences amongst scientists. In accordance with vaccination, the disagreements are “timing and dosing of vaccines, the need to boost later in life, and the risks and benefits of vaccinating those with compromised immune systems” (212). Science is constantly changing, due to the principal of science as a process; new information about vaccination can cause scientists to change their minds and disagree with other scientists. Chiropractors have blown these issues out of proportion. Additionally, they quote only major critics of vaccination and do not look at both sides of the vaccine issue; the inability to do this lessens the chiropractors’ credibility.
    Vaccines do carry some risks and chiropractors have once again exploited that point as well. Vaccination is a medical procedure and new vaccinations, especially, carry the most risk. A conservative website, Life Site, denounced the HPV and says it causes “one death per month” (source: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jul/08070316.html). However, CNN more accurately reported 15 deaths since the HPV vaccine’s induction (source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/07/07/cervical.cancer.vaccine/index.html). This is an example of anti-vaccine groups once again highlighting the negative aspects of a scientifically proven process. Life Site also ignored the benefits of being vaccinated, such as prevention of HPV; the risks of not being vaccinated usually outweigh the risks of being vaccinated.
    Chiropractors also appeal to the personal freedom of people. Carroll writes, “Cumpolsory vaccination of school-age children is viewed by some as an unacceptable violation of personal and parental rights” (232). For example, conservative parents also believe that the HPV vaccine would undermine their roles as parents; “[those] who oppose mandatory use of the vaccine because they say it would encourage sexual activity by young girls (source: New York Times; http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/health/17vaccine.html?scp=8&sq=hpv&st=cse).” Because of more conservative beliefs, they may eventually “subordinate the safety of an entire community” (Carroll 232). Chiropractors may even feel that vaccination undermines their belief system that “all diseases stem from misalignment or subluxation of vertebrae” (232).

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  2. Chris ChenApril 12, 2009 at 6:57 PM

    Like Carroll have explained on page 230, some vaccinations have indeed been successful. For example, the drop of polio from 38,476 cases in 1954 to 28,985 after the vaccine was available and the further decrease to 1312 cases 6 years after the vaccine was available clearly shows that vaccines are effective. However, vaccines and their uses definitely have many negative effects. Apparently, chiropractors are strong advocates against the force of vaccinations on the public (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine#Developing_immunity). They, along with many others, believe that disease can be prevented or cured by changes in behavior or environment instead of using scientifically proven methods.

    Diseases like measles, chicken pox and whooping cough have been proved to not be caused by germs, but rather toxic elements present in the body. Therefore, vaccines are not effectively fighting the core of the disease when injected into the body to fight off bacteria and viruses. In under developed countries, these diseases can occur by malnutrition and other poor living conditions (source: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5111a4.htm). However, even though toxic levels in the body can be raised solely by the human’s living conditions such as malnutrition and an unsanitary environment, harmful parasitic organisms can also make toxic compounds. Vaccines cannot only target these poisonous substances, but they can also target the organisms that are creating them. Therefore, vaccines do in fact help remove toxic conditions from the body.

    Biotoxins are produced by “germs” living inside host organisms such as humans. In order to prevent our bodies from being affected from these biotoxins, doctors can give use vaccines that contain toxoids, which are inactivated toxic compounds. When these toxoids that resemble the active form of a biotoxin enter the body, our immune systems recognize them as foreign invaders and destroy them. Our body also remembers these toxic compounds and creates immunity (source: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/tetanus/DS00227). When a virus or a bacterium that enters the body produces the biotoxin, the immune system recognizes it as a “bad” substance and destroys it. Also, if inactive forms of the virus or bacteria that make the biotoxin are used in a vaccine, our immune systems will be able to recognize the organism that makes the biotoxin and will destroy it before any toxic compounds can be produced. An example of a disease that is caused by a biotoxin is tetanus. Tetanus is caused by a neurotoxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium tetani. This bacterium can enter the body if the human has an open wound (source: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jul/08070316.html). The neurotoxin created by Clostridium tetani, called tetanospasmin, causes muscle spasms in the jaw and muscles spasms in all parts of the body. The vaccine for tetanus contains a toxoid that is an inactive form of tetanospasmin. The immune system destroys and recognizes this compound resembling the poisonous neurotoxin and can destroy active tetanospasmin if it is found in the body.

    Therefore, there is significant evidence on the effects of vaccines. Many claim that things other than germs that the immune system can fight off cause diseases. Therefore, in these cases, vaccines can be ineffective and the things that really need to change are in the external environment. Nonetheless, vaccines can help remove toxic conditions in the body as well as fight off germs. Depending on the disease, vaccines can help create immunity in a variety of ways, including using inactive compounds called toxoids to help the body fight off biotoxins and targeting the organism that creates the biotoxin.

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  3. Jessica BenyukhisApril 13, 2009 at 7:32 PM

    On pages 231-232, Carroll stated, “Chiropractors’ lack of training in the diagnosis or causes of disease was no deterrent in discouraging public vaccination.” This is interesting because Carroll explicitly discusses the fact that chiropractors have no biological medical training, or at least not enough to really be able to have a position on the subject of the effectiveness of vaccination, yet they have a big opinion which is completely against modern medicine. Carroll mentions the fact that chiropractors were not able to cure polio, nor did they try very hard, yet vaccination is what cured polio. He goes on to say “One would think that fifty years after the success of the polio campaign, this nonsense would be behind us. Sadly, it is not.”
    According to an article, “Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material (the vaccine) to produce immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by a pathogen. Vaccination is considered to be the most effective and cost-effective method of preventing infectious diseases. The material administrated can either be live but weakened forms of pathogens (bacteria or viruses), killed or inactivated forms of these pathogens, or purified material such as proteins.” Vaccines are generally made up of a modified bacteria or virus that can allow the body to have a first immune system exposure to the disease without actually getting sick from it. When the body is exposed like this, it can immediately send in the lymphocytic B-cells which are always free-floating in the blood stream, and those can send a message to the helper T-cells, which eventually will create plasma B-cells and memory B-cells. The plasma cells will be the cells that are actually active in attacking and killing the virus or pathogen. The memory B-cells will be the cells that will be immediately activated in the second immune system exposure and prevent the body from actually getting sick from being exposed to the pathogen on the second time.
    According to an article, “"At the present time there are growing public and professional concerns about the safety of currently mandated childhood vaccine programs, as reflected in by a series of annual Congressional hearings in Washington DC that have taken place since 1999”. This set up exactly why the article was discussing vaccinations, but what is more interesting is that the article goes on to say that 50-60% of autism has been caused by damage caused by vaccines. This is an extremely high number and must be considered when thinking about whether or not these vaccines are really as useful as we think they are.
    According to Viera Scheibner, PhD - "Ever since mass vaccination of infants began, reports of serious brain, cardiovascular, metabolic and other injuries started filling pages of medical journals." In fact, pertussis vaccine has been used to induce encephalomyelitis, which is characterized by brain swelling and hemorrhaging". This is an extremely scary thought because kids are being vaccinated constantly, and we are not realizing exactly how many problems it is truly causing the kids when thinking about other aspects of their health.
    According to an article called “Vaccination Myths”, much of the so-called necessity for vaccines is due to the government getting a lot of money from the people who are required to pay for the vaccines. The reason these vaccines are required is because the government is making more money that way. An interesting fact that was pointed out in the article was that the amount of infectious disease was slowly declining before vaccines really became popular.
    Vaccination is an extremely controversial issue. Many articles argue against vaccinations, saying that vaccinations cause many physical issues in children, and are not really worth it. On the other hand, many articles argue that “After immunizations were introduced on a wide scale, infections such as tetanus, diphtheria, mumps, measles, pertussis (whooping cough), and polio became rare. Newer immunization have also decreased certain types of meningitis, pneumonia, and ear infections in children.” These articles are completely for immunizations and don’t really get into the details of the effects they might have on children. They only give the benefits, which are being immune from specific illnesses.
    There are currently four different types of vaccines available: “Attenuated (weakened) live virus is used in the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and the varicella (chicken pox) vaccine. These vaccines may cause serious infections in people with weakened immune systems.; Killed (inactivated) viruses or bacteria are used in some vaccines, such as the influenza vaccine. These vaccines are safe, even in people with weakened immune systems.; Toxoid vaccines, such as the diphtheria or tetanus vaccines, contain a toxin or chemical made by the bacteria or virus. They make you immune to the harmful effects of the infection rather than the infection itself.; Biosynthetic vaccines contain human-made substances that the immune system thinks are infectious organisms. The Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type B) conjugate vaccine is one example.”
    This relates to the biological theme of regulation. Our bodies generally tend to regulate themselves and maintain homeostasis because this is what our bodies are meant to do. When we are injected with vaccines, it may interfere with our body’s ability to maintain homeostasis correctly because the vaccine is an addition of some sort of bacteria or virus into the blood stream. The human body needs to self regulate; that is what its job is. Vaccines are making it easier for the body not to have to put up barriers are much as in the past and we may be actually relaxing selection on developing immunity through genetics to different diseases. Therefore, this widespread argument between whether or not vaccines are beneficial is not exactly an argument where I can take a stance because both sides of the argument make sense. It is important, though, to recognize that vaccines can be very effective in preventing diseases that would otherwise kill a person, while their effects may not be as bad. It is just that if a person would have never been exposed to the disease that they were vaccinated against, but experienced physical disabilities due to the vaccines, it makes the vaccine seem useless and even a little on the stupid side. Overall, though, it is important to recognize that vaccines have some very positive qualities and it is important to keep researching to find better ways to vaccinate people with less disabilities stemming from the process.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination
    http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/vaccines.htm
    http://www.relfe.com/vaccine.html
    http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/immunizations-general-overview/overview.html

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