EC Vaccinations Post

Vaccinations: Good for You or Good for the World?

 

For this blog post, I read the article “Five surprising moments in vaccine history” by Anna Rothschild published by the Washington Post. This Washington D.C. based author received her journalism degree from NYU and writes in science/health journalism. This article included a high-level overview of the history of vaccines with a short video series. The video series consists of three videos on the topics of vaccine skepticism, vaccine ingredients, and the safety of vaccines. Although these videos were made in 2019, the messages the author gives to the audience are still significant in 2024. 

Summary

This video series was motivated by the widespread controversy over giving kids vaccines, which has been around for the past 200 years. A lot of this controversy is rooted in mass distrust in large pharmaceutical institutions but continued to grow as more vaccines became necessary. This all began with Smallpox which has a high fatality rate, but scientists found that milkmaids did not contract Smallpox. This process is how they ultimately tested the first Smallpox vaccine with the bodily fluids from the milkmaids. Although the creation of vaccines was less than ethical, the rest of the video series dives further into the details of how vaccines evolved and adapted to new safety demands. 

 

Takeaways

Generally, the main takeaway for me was the human reaction to vaccinations. Originally, so many people reacted out of fear when the Smallpox vaccine was introduced to the population that there were no more human hosts for Smallpox to survive in. Even though many vaccinations have been created to solve traditional illnesses, newer illnesses have come up to take their place which is why there is still a need for new vaccines today but also why we don’t see people get Smallpox today. The resulting juxtaposition of trust and health creates a major ethical dilemma for humans depending on individual beliefs.  

 

My Take

Personally, I enjoyed watching this video series and felt the information was relevant to any viewer. The author took a scientific perspective when reviewing the history and science behind vaccinations without too many unnecessary details. There was a part that caught my attention about adjuvants, which are ingredients included in vaccines to evoke a better reaction from the body; specifically, Thimerosal, the ingredient that led many parents to believe it caused autism in children. This is why it was removed from all vaccines in 2001, however, there has been no decrease in autism rates. I liked the inclusion of this detail because it brought scientific facts to mainstream arguments we hear from people or on social media against vaccinations. 

 

Critical Thinking Conclusion

Ultimately, digesting this information requires critical thinking skills because of the many factors that must be considered. One example of this is the long-term effects of vaccinations because it is challenging to gauge these results without extensive research studies. This was the root of the belief that vaccinations cause autism which was based on a research paper that was later retracted and taken back. So hearing instances of serious side effects or random cases of bad reactions can cause serious doubt in the notion of vaccinations. With all this being said, these cases of severe reactions are a result of contracting the disease itself AND having the vaccine not just from receiving the vaccine. This information is quite dense as it weighs short-term health to long-term health, but there will always be the discussion of safety. In today’s society, vaccines have been so successful in creating a disease-free world that people are now questioning why they need a vaccine if everyone is healthy. The illness will come back in a new form (i.e. coronavirus strains) and will create a new need for vaccines as this cycle continues. The author reported that the World Health Organization (WHO) deems vaccine hesitancy as a threat to global health as the obstacle to eradicating the worst illnesses across the globe. Critical thinking skills are required to determine which side of world safety you will be on.