In 2011, 123 countries immunized over 90% of infants against measles. Between 2000 and 2011, vaccination resulted in a 71% drop in measles related deaths worldwide, and yet 18% of Americans believe vaccines cause autism, and 30% are undecided. While vaccines shouldn’t be mandatory, because they at the end of the day it is the family’s choice, they should definitely be encouraged and easily provided to everyone. There is insurmountable proof and reasoning that vaccines are beneficial to society, which are evident through three main contentions. These are the economic benefits, the proven health benefits, and the myths stemming from falsified articles.
One of the biggest misconceptions about vaccines that we know, but don’t talk about, is how expensive they are. Many people think that they cost a lot of money and it will cause taxes to skyrocket, but vaccines have proven to save money, and lives, in the long run, especially for developing countries. Studies by UNICEF have shown that scaling vaccines in the world’s 72 poorest countries could save 6.4 million lives and avert $6.2 billion in treatment costs and $145 billion in productivity losses. Furthermore, one dose of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine costs around 20¢, and a life-saving dose of measles-vaccine costs a quarter. Imagine, the cost to save your life could be the change in your couch. Everyone can afford, and should, give up a quarter to increase the likelihood of survival.
This proves how many lives vaccines can save, and considering a vaccine costs about a quarter, it also shows for how cheap. Medically, vaccines save lives, as evident by the graph above. The most important thing to note it that while many people in first world countries are vaccinated, many children in third world and developing countries aren’t, and they are the people most at risk.
Vaccines have been instrumental in eradicating smallpox and nearly eradicating polio. In North America, Europe, and most developed countries, over 90% of children are vaccinated with DTP3. However, in developing countries, 1 in 5 children are not vaccinated and are defenceless against life threatening diseases. At one time 80% of children in Japan were getting vaccinated for the whooping cough, and that year less than 400 cases were recorded. In five years, rumours spread that the vaccine was not needed, and less than 10% of kids were vaccinated. That year, over 13,000 cases occurred.
Vaccines have proven to be beneficial from a medical standpoint, and many of the studies that say otherwise have been false. One of the most common misconceptions is that vaccines cause autism. One of the biggest stepping-stones in support of this myth is a falsified study published in 1998 in a newspaper known as The Lancet. In this article, disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield produced a fraudulent paper that was based on studies between vaccines and autism. It was later found out that Andrew had not acted in the mentally challenged patients best wishes, and is now charged with three dozen charges, a dozen involving abuse of mentally challenged children. This is just one of the many falsified articles that were created due to profit motive, a similar one creating a connection between vaccines and bowel inflammatory disease.
While there are numerous benefits to vaccines, there are some downsides, and it’s morally unjust to make flu shots mandatory, because individuals have their own philosophical and religious perspectives on flu shots. However, they should definitely be encouraged and be provided free of charge by the government to eradicate myths, as well as because of the medical and economic benefits.