FOLKLORE
• At one time, immunizations may have helped prevent disease.
• Today, there are far too many immunizations being given.
• Multiple immunizations are bound to disrupt a baby’s or young child’s fragile and developing immune system.
• Many immunizations, and the ingredients in them, are harmful to the brain and may be the cause of serious dysfunctions of the brain, such as autism and ADHD.
FACTS
The purpose of vaccinations is to expose the body to something that will convince the immune system that the real infection is happening, create long-term memory for having had the infection and transform the person into someone no longer able to get that infection. Vaccinations switch the immune system from being unready for that germ’s attack into being ready and able to resist that infection.
What is a vaccination?
Edward Jenner established the idea of immunization in Europe in 1796 by giving people a case of cowpox that then rendered them immune to smallpox. The Latin word for cowpox is vaccinia, so the act of giving someone cowpox was called vaccination.
Have we always been distrustful of vaccination?
Yes. From the beginning, the idea of giving somebody one condition to prevent another has haunted the idea of immunizations. More recently, two major trends have led to increased suspicion of immunizations.
What are those major trends?
First, is a growing distrust of the pharmaceutical and medical industries. Every year, more people find themselves wondering how many medical interventions are really helpful and how many exist just to make money.
As established vaccinations conquered old diseases, there were fewer and fewer infections of childhood left to prevent, especially serious infections, and new vaccines for other, less serious illnesses were developed. Ironically, the powerful success of the first immunizations led to both a proliferation of new immunizations and the birth of the anti-immunization movement.
Anti-immunization movements had difficulty gaining traction when nearly all immunizations were directed at dread diseases. There were no anti-immunization coalitions attacking the use of tetanus vaccine when it was developed for use in World War II. When polio immunization became available, people crowded churches and schools, clamoring for protection from paralysis, the iron lung and suffocating death.
Because of the astounding success of these first immunizations, by the 1970s American families could truly be relieved of the threat of deadly infections for the first time in human history. But once immunizations for largely harmless illnesses (in the US) like chickenpox and stomach flu were developed, suspicions began to arise about why such new vaccines were being promoted and the anti-immunization movement was born.
The second cause of distrust stems largely from a 1988 paper presented by Dr. Andrew Wakefield in which he put forth the claim that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism. The concept caught fire and many prominent celebrities who had children with autism promoted his findings as being unshakeable truth.
By 2004, Dr. Wakefield’s paper was beginning to be exposed as a fraud.
In 2010, it was reported that essentially Wakefield had made up all of his data.
Even in the face of this discovery, the belief still lingers that immunizations cause autism. As well as the feeling that giving a lot of immunizations upsets the immune system.
Immunizations do not cause autism or upset the immune system
The exposure of Dr. Wakefield’s attempt to convince people that immunizations cause autism as a cruel hoax has not yet fully taken root. The evidence is now overwhelming, from studies in many countries, that immunizations do not cause autism.
As to the idea that our immune systems can be perturbed by multiple immunizations, it turns out that our immune system does not languish in placid repose, waiting to be thrown into violent tumult by multiple immunizations. Every second of the day, the immune system battles billions and trillions of dangerous germs. Adding harmless signals from five or even 10 different germs in one day of immunization can hardly disrupt it.
Again, when one looks at the hundreds of millions of children who have received multiple immunizations in infancy (including most parents when they were infants), there is no evidence that the immune system is bothered or harmed at all.
Summary
For 150,000 years, every generation of mankind has been burdened by the excruciating loss of their children to infections. So much so that some societies did not bestow their children with names until they reached the age of one.
The relatively recent advent of immunizations and their huge success has changed all that. As the rampages of smallpox, polio and other deadly infections have been tamed, new vaccines have been developed and promoted to overcome even milder diseases. Certainly, more will follow.
As a result of Dr. Wakefield’s allegations, scientific studies have been undertaken to explore the connection between immunization and autism or ADHD. Results show absolutely no connections. Other rumored consequences from immunizations, in particular, that giving them together causes harm, are also not supported by experience.
The questions about immunizations that still make sense are these:
1. What is the best way to protect our infants from deadly diseases?
2. How quickly can such protection be put into place after birth?
3. Which immunizations are necessary to prevent the most dangerous threats?
4. Which immunizations are helpful but less urgently needed?
5. Which immunizations prevent generally harmless illnesses?
Soon, it is hoped, the unfounded panic surrounding immunizations will pass and we will return to a more rational discussion of their benefits and risks.
