Debunking Vaccine Myths

A lot of controversy these days has stemmed around whether or not to vaccinate and if vaccines actually work. To understand how vaccines work, it is important to know how exactly your body fights illness and disease.

How does the body fight off illness and disease:

When a bacteria or virus enters the body, it immediately begins to multiply, this invasion is what causes illness. Your bodies immune system uses white blood cells (WBC) to fight off infection (CDC, 2018). The WBC responsible for fighting off infection include:

  1. Macrophages: Involved in phagocytosis (or cell eating of bacteria or dead cells) 
  2. B-lymphocytes: Produce antibodies to attack antigens
  3. T-lymphocytes: Attack cells in the body that have already been infected

After an infection subsides, your immune system’s T-lymphocytes (or memory cells) remembers what is learned about how to protect your body from that disease. This allows the body to respond quicker once it comes in contact with the disease again (CDC, 2018).

Now that you know more of how the body fights illness and disease, its time to learn how exactly vaccines work:

Vaccines work by establishing an immune response that recognizes a pathogen when it enters the body. To do this the pathogen is introduced into the body in a form in which it imitates an infection. This allows you body to build up immune defenses to combat the virus or bacteria. This immune response builds up your bodies memory T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocyte antibodies to help your body fight infection and disease when it arises again (CDC, 2018).

Types of vaccines available: 

  1. Live attenuated: Contain a version of the virus or bacteria that has been weakened, most similar to natural infection without causing serious disease. Examples include- MMR and Varicella
  2. Inactive vaccines: bacteria or virus is killed or inactivated, can require multiple doses. Examples- Polio vaccine
  3. Toxoid vaccines: toxins are weakened so they cannot cause illness. Examples- DTaP and Tetanus 
  4. Subunit vaccines: include only part of the virus or bacteria instead or entire germ. Examples- whooping cough vaccine
  5. Conjugate vaccine: have antigens with outer sugar coating, which help to link this coating in the immune system to an antigen to develop an immune response. This is used in young children with immature immune responses. Example: Hib vaccine

All Vaccines have their side effects, but these tend to be mild, making the benefits of vaccinating better then the possible negative effects that could occur (CDC, 2018).

Benefits of vaccines

  • Vaccinating helps prevent, preventable disease that could cause death
  • Help reduce the risk of infection
  • Builds up your bodies immune response
  • Decreases health care related costs and visits

(CDC, 2018)

3 Common Myths Associated with Vaccines:

  1. There is a link between autism and vaccinations.

Many parents believe that vaccines can cause health risks to their children and also they tend to have negative views of pharmaceutical companies. The doctors in this article “Vaccines do not cause autism: Pediatricians fight back against anti-science by Knopf”, go on to defend vaccinations, specifically MMR, stating that not vaccinating your child can lead them to contract the disease and die. The doctors state that the vaccination works with the body’s natural defenses to help it safely develop immunity to the measles (Knopf, 2017). Also, when more people are vaccinated, there are fewer opportunities for the disease to spread (Knopf,2017). The article then goes on to provide evidence by the CDC, stating how there is no evidence linking vaccines to autism. The main point of this article was to debunk rumors posed against vaccines, because not vaccinating is always worse and it can also be deadly. 

2. Children have adverse reactions to vaccinations, specifically MMR because they are given to many at once.

The article of the tale of shifting hypotheses on vaccines and autism does a great job in debunking this myth. The article gives various reasons throughout on why it would not be possible to link autism and to many vaccines given to children too soon. The article states that first, vaccines do not overwhelm the immune system of an infant. The article explains that an infant’s immune system is capable of generating protective responses and can detect the capacity to respond to vaccines simultaneously (Gerber, 2009). The article then goes on to explain that multiple vaccines do not weaken the immune system and that autism in fact is not even an immune-mediated disease (Gerber, 2009). The article explains that there is no scientific evidence supporting the facts that there is immune activation of inflammatory lesions in the CNS of people with autism (Gerber, 2009). Thus the speculations posed against vaccinations in single or multiple doses, is highly inappropriate and not true, based on the findings of this article.

3.The CDC has known all along there was a risk for autism with vaccines.

The third article I chose was all about the MMR vaccine, which was the particular target for these autism assumptions. The article explains how the vaccine is given, it states that the vaccine is given in 2 doses, the first dose at the age of 12-15 months, and the second dose at preschool age (MAHMIĆ-KAKNJO, 2017). These are the most prevalent years to be seeing signs of the disease, which is why allegations could be made. The article then explains how the vaccine is 92% effective in the prevention of measles (MAHMIĆ-KAKNJO, 2017). Most importantly that there is no drug on the market without side effects, and specifically this vaccine does not even have a side effect of autism or anything to do with it. Therefore the MMR vaccine is safe, effective and the most inexpensive prevention of the 3 viral diseases and parents should trust their doctors and vaccinate their children.

Vaccines are a great medical advancement in preventing the spread disease and possible death. Now that you know all the contributing factors on how vaccines exactly work and why myths that link vaccines to be the causation of autism in children are just not true, I hope you decide to vaccinate today!

References:

“Understanding How Vaccines Work.” CDC.gov, Cdc, 1 July 2018, www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/conversations/downloads/vacsafe-understand-color-office.pdf.

Knopf, A. (2017). Vaccines do not cause autism: Pediatricians fight back against anti-science. Brown University Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter, 33, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbl.30195 

Gerber, J. S., & Offit, P. A. (2009). Vaccines and autism: a tale of shifting hypotheses. Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 48(4), 456–461. doi:10.1086/596476

MAHMIĆ-KAKNJO, M., RUSTEMPAŠIĆ, E., & HADŽIĆ, E. (2017). Measles-Mumps-Rubella (Mmr) Vaccine – Benefits and Risks Revisited. Pedijatrija Danas: Pediatrics Today, 13(1), 42–45. https://doi.org/10.5457/p2005-114.168