Should I get my child vaccinated? This question has become very popular recently, as more people are deciding against getting their children vaccinated. The antivaccination trend is just as contagious as the measles.
But why? Guaranteed protection from the chicken pox without ever having an itch sounds pretty great to me!
Vaccine hesitancy is the refusal to vaccinate despite the availability for any reason that may include confidence, complacency, and convenience. In fact, some states do not require vaccination upon entry into high school. For example, Washington is one of 17 states that allows parents to send their children off to school without proper immunization for reasons such as personal disagreeances.
But what cultivates this new trend? Sobo, a professor at San Diego State University conducted a study in which she interviewed families in California who attended schools with low vaccination rates. Sobo found that skepticism about vaccination was mostly “socially cultivated,” meaning that those parents uncertain about modern medicine influenced the decisions of their peers in their community.
Although we might think it is crazy to refuse a vaccination that protects you from highly contagious brutal infections, the study also found that most parents protesting vaccination are often very highly educated individuals.
So what would make them risk the health of their children?
Often times, families who live in a progressive community create an environment where making a decision outside of the progressive platform has large social costs. Think about it: if you accidentally attend a formal party in jeans and a tee shirt, although someone may not directly tell you to your face that you are out of dress code, the next time you attend a similar party you’ll probably dress up more just based off the premise of not standing out.
How can we combat this phenomenon?
A study conducted by Arede et. al developed an approach to fight the resistance against vaccinations by choosing to target adolescents and children based on the idea that this age group’s emotional state is more easily influenced comparatively to older individuals. Their framework included familiarizing their target group with the concept of herd community (the idea that vaccinations not only protect yourself but others around you), correcting misinformation such as the false accusation that Measles is linked to Autism, and that each individual plays a major role in being able to eradicate some of these infectious agents.
Why is vaccination so important?
Choosing to not vaccinate your children, puts those who are too young or do not have access to the vaccine susceptible to disease. The decisions you make have direct impacts on others. Emmanuel Bilodeau chose not to vaccinate his children for the MMR (measle, mumps, and rubella) vaccination because of the fear that it caused Autism. After taking a family trip abroad to Vietnam, Bilodeau learned that his son had contracted measles. Unfortunately, before he learned of his diagnosis his son had spread the infection to eight others at his school including his siblings.
Measles has the ability to cause serious complications including pneumonia, encephalitis, and even death! I don’t know about you, but I would be pretty mad if my baby contracted pneumonia because of the decision of a family to not vaccinate their children. But you decide.
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