After the passage of laws in Britain in the mid-19th century making it mandatory for parents to vaccinate their children, anti-vaccine activists formed the Anti-Vaccination League in London. However, opposition against vaccines was not only manifested in theological arguments many also objected to them for political and legal reasons. Similar religious opposition was seen in the “New World” even earlier, such as in the writings of Reverend John Williams in Massachusetts, who also cited similar reasons for his opposition to vaccines claiming that they were the devil’s work. He decried these vaccines as an attempt to oppose God’s punishments upon man for his sins. Opposition to vaccines goes as far back as the 18th century when, for example, Reverend Edmund Massey in England called the vaccines “diabolical operations” in his 1772 sermon, “The Dangerous and Sinful Practice of Inoculation”. įear of vaccines and myths against them are not a new phenomenon. Given the highly contagious nature of diseases like measles, vaccination rates of 96% to 99% are necessary to preserve herd immunity and prevent future outbreaks. The only thing that can protect populations against a rapidly spreading disease is the disease's resistance created by herd immunity when the majority are immune after vaccinations. Global communities are now more connected than ever, which translates to a higher probability of the transmission of pathogens. A drop in immunizations poses a threat to the herd immunity the medical world has worked hard to achieve. Still, other reasons for the anti-vaccination movement can be due to personal reasons, such as religious or secular views. The decrease in vaccinations has led to recent outbreaks of diseases that were thought to be “eliminated”, such as measles. This has caused vaccination rates to sustain a surprising drop in some Western countries. Social media and television talk show hosts, such as Oprah Winfrey, played a big role in this miseducation by giving credence to the campaign. Voices such as Jenny McCarthy’s have proven to be influential, sweeping fear and distrust into parents’ minds by parading as “autism experts”. The premise of the anti-vaccination movement can also be contributed to the demonization of vaccinations by news and entertainment outlets. However, there has been a recent rise in anti-vaccination sentiments surrounding beliefs that vaccines cause more harm than benefits to the health of the children who receive them. In fact, according to the World Health Organization’s Polio Global Eradication Initiative, the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) will be used as a backbone for eradicating poliovirus in the next decade. They have contributed to decreasing rates of common childhood diseases and, in some cases, have even wiped out some diseases that were common in years past, such as smallpox, rinderpest, and have nearly eradicated malaria and polio. Vaccines are one of the most important measures of preventative medicine to protect the population from diseases and infections.
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