In 1926, more than 800 Canadians died from the measles. After the vaccine was introduced, this mortality rate dropped into single-digit numbers within 20 years, according to Statistics Canada. These are real numbers which show the impact this vaccine has had on our population.
Measles, an incredibly contagious disease, infects 90 per cent of people who come in contact with the disease and aren’t immunized, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was declared eliminated in North America in 2002, except for the occasional outbreak, usually brought in from outside.
Most Canadian children now receive vaccination for measles, as well as many other diseases which have been reduced to rarities. Statistics show adverse reactions to these vaccines are rare and preventable, and their impact on life as a parent has been invaluable. We are lucky to live in a country where these immunizations are readily available to us and our children.
Not everybody agrees, and unfortunately the voice of a public figure speaks more authoritatively for many than the statistics and science behind immunization.
One such public figure is Jenny McCarthy, who blames the rise of autism in the United States on vaccination, including autism in her own son. McCarthy is not a scientist and her claims are not supported by medical research. But she is well-known, charismatic and passionate on the subject, and her voice has carried further than the real numbers have.
It’s true, autism numbers have been rising steadily in North America, but there is no correlation between vaccinations and autism. Autism numbers have risen simply because the more we learn about the disorder, the more people are being diagnosed with it. However, many people are not willing to do the research for themselves and instead rely on public figures like McCarthy and various websites of varying credibility to make decisions which should be made by a trained medical professional.
“I wasn’t prepared for them to put any old rubbish into my perfect baby, no matter what their arguments for ‘preventative health’ were,” writes one author on vaccineriskawareness.com. Her arguments? A scary-sounding list of ingredients, an unfounded one-in-a-million chance of brain damage, and doctors who “jeered” when she, a young parent, refused to vaccinate her child.
“I know children regress after vaccination because it happened to my own son,” McCarthy claimed.
With a fear-mongering statement like that, no wonder young parents are becoming more and more fearful of vaccines. Anybody can write a blog now, making anti-vaccination literature just as common as the real science behind immunization, and often much easier to read.
I have never had children, and I can’t pretend to know what it’s like. But I was vaccinated, along with most of the rest of my generation, and I am thankful. I’m thankful for the scientists who worked to find cures for the diseases that killed so many children, and I’m thankful for my parents who trusted my doctor and immunized me. When I read these articles and see parents from my generation choosing not to vaccinate their children, I feel powerless to help them.
When it comes to that time in your life, you don’t have to take the doctor’s word for everything. But you also need more than a blog and a loudmouth celebrity to back you up when you choose not to inject your child with decades of research and hard work.
The science is there for a reason, and when it comes time to choose, I will always side with the truth.
