Tish Davidson - The Vaccine Debate

THE VACCINE DEBATE

Geriatrics
Carol Leth Stone

Plastic Surgery
Lana Thompson

Birth Control
Aharon W. Zorea

Bullying
Sally Kuykendall, PhD

Steroids
Aharon W. Zorea

Suicide and Mental Health
Rudy Nydegger

Cutting and Self-Harm
Chris Simpson

Discrimination against the Mentally Ill
Monica A. Joseph

Concussions
William Paul Meehan III

Drug Resistance
Sarah E. Boslaugh

Work-Life Balance
Janice Arenofsky

The Body Size and Health Debate
Christine L. B. Selby

Obesity: Second Edition
Evelyn B. Kelly

Infertility Treatments
Janice Arenofsky

Assistive Technology for People with Disabilities
Denis K. Anson

Transgender Health Issues
Sarah Boslaugh

Tish Davidson

Health and Medical Issues Today

Copyright 2019 by ABC-CLIO, LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Davidson, Tish, author.
Title: The vaccine debate / Tish Davidson.
Description: Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood, [2019] | Series: Health and medical issues today | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018030122 (print) | LCCN 2018031675 (ebook) | ISBN 9781440843549 (ebook) | ISBN 9781440843532 (print: alk. paper)
Subjects: | MESH: Vaccines | Vaccination | Treatment Outcome | Public Opinion | Mandatory Programsethics
Classification: LCC QR189 (ebook) | LCC QR189 (print) | NLM QW 805 | DDC 615.3/72dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018030122

ISBN: 978-1-4408-4353-2 (print)
978-1-4408-4354-9 (ebook)

23 22 21 20 19 1 2 3 4 5

This book is also available as an eBook.

Greenwood
An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC

ABC-CLIO, LLC
147 Castilian Drive
Santa Barbara, CA 93117
www.abc-clio.com

This book is printed on acid-free paper

Manufactured in the United States of America

In memory of my father, Paul M. Stouffer, musician and composer

Every day, the public is bombarded with information on developments in medicine and health care. Whether it is on the latest techniques in treatment or research or on concerns over public health threats, this information directly affects the lives of people more than almost any other issue. Although there are many sources for understanding these topicsfrom websites and blogs to newspapers and magazinesstudents and ordinary citizens often need one resource that makes sense of the complex health and medical issues affecting their daily lives.

The Health and Medical Issues Today series provides just such a one-stop resource for obtaining a solid overview of the most controversial areas of health care in the 21st century. Each volume addresses one topic and provides a balanced summary of what is known. These volumes provide an excellent first step for students and lay people interested in understanding how health care works in our society today.

Each volume is broken into several parts to provide readers and researchers with easy access to the information they need:

provides overview chapters on background informationincluding chapters on such areas as the historical, scientific, medical, social, and legal issues involvedthat a citizen needs to intelligently understand the topic.

provides capsule examinations of the most heated contemporary issues and debates, and analyzes in a balanced manner the viewpoints held by various advocates in the debates.

provides case studies that show examples of the concepts discussed in the previous parts.

A selection of reference material, such as a timeline of important events, a directory of organizations, and a bibliography, serve as the best next step in learning about the topic at hand.

The Health and Medical Issues Today series strives to provide readers with all the information needed to begin making sense of some of the most important debates going on in the world today. The series includes volumes on such topics as stem cell research, obesity, gene therapy, alternative medicine, organ transplantation, mental health, and more.

Vaccines save lives. They have eradicated the scourge of smallpox, a disease that over the centuries killed millions and left millions more disabled. They are on the verge of eradicating polio and have prevented thousands of deaths from diphtheria and birth defects from rubella (German measles) infection. Yet, despite very clear evidence that vaccines save lives and prevent disabilities, there has always been some opposition to their use. The strength of this opposition has varied both geographically and across time.

Until the middle of the 20th century, most people had personal experience with some vaccine-preventable diseases such as diphtheria, polio, tetanus, and measles. They understood the damage these diseases could cause and welcomed the opportunity to avoid illness through immunization. Opposition to vaccination was minimal.

As dreaded diseases declined in developed countries and awareness of their risks faded, some people began questioning the safety of vaccines and the need for vaccination. The medical community responded with statistics demonstrating that vaccines have a high rate of effectiveness and low rate of serious side effects. It warned that outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases were inevitable unless a large percentage of the population was vaccinated. Although this satisfied most people, some remained opposed to vaccination.

The uncensored platform of the internet in the 21st century has substantially increased the scope and intensity of the debate about the safety and value of vaccine. Still, most parents consider vaccination a positive health intervention. Vaccination rates across the 50 states in the United States range from 99 percent in Mississippi and Maryland to 87 percent in Colorado. But despite data showing vaccines are safe and effective, a substantial number of parents, if not outright vaccine rejectors, choose to skip certain vaccinations or insist on modifying the medically recommended vaccination schedule for their children.

This book considers both sides of the vaccine debate. illustrates some of the consequences of vaccine choices individual parents made. It is hoped that readers will approach this material thoughtfully, keeping in mind the reliability of the sources of information presented when considering the validity of the viewpoints of each side.