Vaccines are one of the greatest medical miracles achieved in history. They prevent us from contracting diseases that used to be death sentences. In fact, pediatric immunizations themselves are responsible for preventing three million deaths per year. One would think that people would be grateful for the chance to live, and would trust their doctors when they strongly encourage vaccination. However, this is not the case, due to the unnecessarily large amount of publicity concerning the "harmful" effects of vaccination.
This most recently occurred at last week's Republican debate where Michele Bachmann created quite a stir by claiming that HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccines caused mental retardation. She didn't get this information from a doctor, or from a scientific study, but from one woman who claimed her daughter suffered from mental retardation after receiving the vaccine.
Following the debate, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) officially stated that there is no scientific validity to Bachmann's statement. Many other medical officials jumped to defend the vaccine as well, which prevents the type of HPV that leads to 70 out of 100 cases of cervical cancer. According to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the vaccine was tested in 21,000 girls and young women. The most serious side effect was that a few people got a low-grade fever, which seems to be a welcome alternative to cancer.
While the educated public most likely realizes that Bachmann went on national television without doing her research first, there are still people out there that listened to the debate, and decided that they didn't want their daughters to get the HPV vaccine, just like there are the people that listen to Jenny McCarthy spew on and on about how vaccines cause autism. While the study linking the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism was proven to be completely false, many still believe it today, making it very hard for doctors who are just trying to protect their patients.
Hopefully, Bachmann's statements won't lead too many to question the validity of the HPV vaccine, as it is integral for as many people as possible to receive the vaccine. Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children not only put their own children at risk, but other people's children as well. In fact, people should not listen to anyone but doctors who have actually gone to medical school. Bachmann instructing the American public about vaccines is just like me trying to win the Republican presidential nomination, though if statements like hers continue to permeate the Republican campaign, it shouldn't be too hard.
Doctors don't strongly recommend vaccines for their own good; it's for the safety of their patients. In fact, pediatricians actually lose money every time they administer a vaccine when one considers the sterilized needles, alcohol, cotton balls and band-aids that have to be purchased. Insurance companies don't even reimburse pediatricians for the full cost of vaccines, because they feel that if they do, vaccine companies will merely increase their prices. Doctors give out vaccines because they truly believe in keeping their patients as healthy as they can. They, and not Bachmann, took the Hippocratic Oath.
Bachmann wasn't only against the vaccine because Rick Perry supported it, but because she thinks the HPV vaccine will encourage young girls to have sex, a view that many social conservatives share. I fail to understand how explaining to a child that they are receiving a vaccine to protect them from cancer will make them spontaneously go out and have lots of sex. Bachmann feels as if families should be able to make their own decisions about the health of their children. However, when it comes to life or death situations such as illnesses, those decisions should go to the doctors, who do actually know what they are talking about.
However, in our society, no matter how much we pretend to value higher education, we tend to believe those that appear on the television screen rather than those who we should actually be listening to. This multimedia aspect of our society can be very detrimental, especially when politicians decide to take a stance on healthcare issues that they might not actually know everything about.
People need to sit down and try to understand the science behind these studies. They need to realize that no, HPV doesn't cause mental retardation. That just because children are diagnosed with autism around the same time that they are given vaccines does not mean the two are related. They need to appreciate their doctors for doing everything they can to make sure their patients survive.
