Antithesis Essay – Vaccines and Autism

Antithesis Essay – Vaccines and Autism

Vaccination is one of the most revolutionary developments in the history of medicine. Vaccines are used to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and reduce the rates of mortality from preventable healthcare conditions. Although there is evidence that vaccines help to solve significant health issues, there has been a lot of opposition to them. Vaccines are believed to have negative side effects on people, especially children, who take them. Whereas vaccines are objected to because of their connection to health risks like autism, they are important in saving lives because they reduce the spread of harmful diseases, and they have been proven to be incredibly helpful throughout history. Nonetheless, this paper shows that there are still some concerns over the connection of vaccines to autism and other negative implications that may surpass the expected positive effects of vaccines.

Although the rates of child vaccination are high, there has been a fast-increasing concern over the connection between autism and vaccination. There are three main hypotheses that have been proposed explaining the possible mechanisms through which vaccines cause autism. First, it is believed that the combination of rubella, mumps, and measles vaccines causes intestinal damage, which causes entry of proteins that are connected to autism (Gerber, Jeffrey, and Offit 456). Some vaccines are also believed to be toxic to the central nervous system and overwhelming to the immune system, hence increasing the risk of autism (456). The concerns over autism are reason enough for parents to be cautious with the vaccines that they accept for their children.

There is a concern that the risks of vaccines far outweigh the benefits of vaccinating children. Children tend to experience side effects such as fevers, swelling, redness, and irritability when they are vaccinated (Gilkey et al. 11). Parents should be concerned about the importance of such experiences compared to the benefits of vaccination. A lot of people who have been vaccinated still end up being sick. Therefore, the vaccine is not a guarantee that the child will never be sick again. Therefore, parents need to be careful when it comes to using vaccination on their children.

However, there is evidence demonstrating that a lot of the arguments against vaccination are not accurate. The connection between vaccines and autism has been disproven in a lot of research studies. Research shows that there is no connection between vaccines and autism (McKee, Chephra, and Bohannon 106). There is no solid evidence to support the idea that vaccination makes children autistic. However, there has been no research done to compare autism in children who have been vaccinated and those who have not been vaccinated. The main reason for the lack of such studies is that they would be difficult to perform with a high level of validity. There may be a lot of differences in health-seeking behaviors between the two groups that may have been contributing to their eventual health outcomes. Therefore, parents who are uncomfortable with the risk of vaccination and autism can still not know with certainty if vaccines have caused autism. This is a reason enough to avoid giving children too many vaccines, especially at a young age.

There is also evidence from past use of vaccines that show that it is beneficial to children. Vaccination has been used to deal with some of the most serious healthcare issues affecting children. For instance, poliomyelitis was a significant health issue in the 1980s that caused the death of millions of children and left many others living with disabilities. The development of the vaccine to this disorder helped to reduce the occurrence of this illness, helping to save billions of children from death or disability.  This is reason enough for parents to trust vaccines. However, there is concern over the validity of some of the vaccines. While some vaccines have been proven useful, others have not. Children are over-vaccinated at a young age, placing their body systems at risk of being overwhelmed. Therefore, parents should be careful about what they allow their children to be vaccinated with.

In conclusion, there is no doubt that vaccines have been useful to the society. There is evidence that supports vaccines as an important part of protecting the health of children. However, children are so over-vaccinated that their bodies are placed at risk of several health issues. For instance, there is a potential risk of autism and health risks that overwhelm the body of the child, such that the disadvantage of the vaccine surpasses the advantages.

Works Cited

Gerber, Jeffrey S., and Paul A. Offit. “Vaccines and autism: a tale of shifting hypotheses.” Clinical infectious diseases: an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 48.4 (2009): 456.

Gilkey, Melissa B., et al. “Vaccination confidence and parental refusal/delay of early childhood vaccines.” PloS one 11.7 (2016).

McKee, Chephra, and Kristin Bohannon. “Exploring the reasons behind parental refusal of vaccines.” The Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics 21.2 (2016): 104-109.

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Antithesis Essay – Vaccines and Autism

Write an Antithesis Essay defending why people should not take vaccines.

Thesis Statement: Whereas vaccinations are objected to by some claims that they cause autism, vaccinations save lives, especially given that vaccinations prevent the spread of harmful diseases and have been proven throughout history to be incredibly helpful.

Use MLA format. At least 700 words