Americans Misguided on Vaccination Facts

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Vaccination hysteria doesn’t appear to be on the decline if a recent poll is any indication.

“Though plenty of studies continue to debunk the theory that childhood vaccines cause autism, one in four U.S. parents still believe that vaccines might be dangerous, new research reveals.

According to a survey of 1,552 U.S. parents, released online in the journal Pediatrics, many parents are still anxious about vaccines.

The survey found 90 per cent agree that vaccines are a good way to protect children from disease. But 54 per cent say they are concerned about bad side effects.

Twenty-five per cent of the parents said they agreed that "some vaccines cause autism in healthy children." In all, 29 per cent of mothers agreed with that statement, while 17 per cent of fathers did as well.

The survey also found that 12 per cent said they had refused at least one vaccine that the doctor had recommended for their child. Of those, 32 per cent refused the vaccines against meningococcal disease, chickenpox (32 per cent) and measles-mumps-rubella (18 per cent).

Parents tended to be more skeptical of newer vaccines, such as the HPV vaccine that can protect against cervical cancer. Older vaccines, such as measles-mumps-rubella shot were better received.”

Fears of vaccinations causing autism in healthy children is one of the primary concerns of the anti-vaccination crowd. These fears, like most forms of hysteria have no basis in facts or reality.

“Several very well done population-based studies have been conducted into the link between autism and vaccinations, although they aren't widely reported as it is a known fact that hard facts do not resonate with the public conciousness as anecdotes and sob stories from concerned individuals and interest groups. These particular studies have looked at actual populations in actual real-life conditions, exposed to the actual substance in question; none have shown any connection between autism and the thimerosal preservative or the MMR vaccine. There is overwhelming evidence that the MMR and thimerosal-containing vaccines play no role in the development of autism”

1. (Anders Hviid, MSc; Michael Stellfeld, MD; Jan Wohlfahrt, MSc; Mads Melbye, MD, PhD. Association Between Thimerosal-Containing Vaccine and Autism.JAMA. 2003;290:1763-1766.

2. ↑ Uchiyama T. Kurosawa M. Inaba Y. MMR-vaccine and regression in autism spectrum disorders: negative results presented from Japan. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders. 37(2):210-7, 2007 Feb.

3. ↑ Afzal MA. Ozoemena LC. O'Hare A. Kidger KA. Bentley ML. Minor PD. Absence of detectable measles virus genome sequence in blood of autistic children who have had their MMR vaccination during the routine childhood immunization schedule of UK. Journal of Medical Virology. 78(5):623-30, 2006 May.

4. ↑ Honda H. Shimizu Y. Rutter M. No effect of MMR withdrawal on the incidence of autism: a total population study. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines. 46(6):572-9, 2005 Jun.

5. ↑ Smeeth L. Cook C. Fombonne E. Heavey L. Rodrigues LC. Smith PG. Hall AJ. MMR vaccination and pervasive developmental disorders: a case-control study. [Journal Article. Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't] Lancet. 364(9438):963-9, 2004 Sep 11-17. )

Unfortunately, it’s much easier for the general public to buy into a tragic story of a healthy child supposedly developing autism after receiving a vaccination. The public, who is generally not willing to examine the facts beyond that will accept the argument that vaccines are dangerous. It’s sad to think that children aren’t getting the necessary protection from diseases because of their ill-informed parents.