Issue Overview: Vaccines By ProCon.org, adapted by Newsela staff on 01.24.17 Word Count 1,131 Level 1200L A young boy receives an immunization shot at a health center in Glasgow, Scotland, September 3, 2007. Photo by: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that kids aged 0 to 6 get 29 doses of 9 vaccines. The idea behind vaccination is that the best way to provide protection against a disease is to expose a person's body to a small dose of that disease. This low-level exposure allows the body to build up resistance to the disease. Thus, to protect a person against smallpox you vaccinate them with a tiny bit of smallpox. Protecting a person this way is known as immunization. No U.S. federal laws mandate vaccination, but all 50 states require certain vaccinations for children entering public schools. Most states offer medical and religious exemptions. A few also allow philosophical exemptions for people who believe the practice of vaccination is misguided. Supporters of vaccination say it is safe and that it is one of the greatest health developments of the 20th century. They point out that illnesses like rubella, diphtheria, smallpox, polio and whooping cough are now prevented by vaccination and millions of children s lives are saved. They claim that bad reactions to vaccines are extremely rare. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 1
Opponents say that children s immune systems can deal with most infections naturally. They argue that injecting questionable vaccine ingredients into a child may cause side effects, including seizures, paralysis and death. They claim that numerous studies prove that vaccines can trigger both health and behavioral problems. In particular, they say that vaccines may trigger autism, a mental condition that makes it difficult to communicate with others. First Vaccine Was In Response To Smallpox The first instance of vaccine promotion in the United States was in 1721. A minister named Cotton Mather encouraged vaccination in response to an outbreak of a disease called smallpox. Vaccination as practiced today came into being when Edward Jenner, an English physician, created the first smallpox vaccine using cowpox in 1796. Jenner s innovation was used for 200 years, with updates, and eradicated smallpox. In 1801, Benjamin Waterhouse, another physician, began using the "Cowpox Vaccine," which led Massachusetts to become the first U.S. state to promote the use of vaccination. In 1813, President James Madison signed into law An Act to Encourage Vaccination, which created the National Vaccine Agency. In 1855, Massachusetts passed the first U.S. state law mandating vaccinations for school children. By 1970, 29 states would require that children be immunized to attend public schools. Wakefield Claims Vaccine Causes Autism In February 1998, the medical journal Lancet published an article by Dr. Andrew Wakefield. The article reported on a study of Wakefield's, which he claimed proved that the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella can cause autism. Anti-vaccination groups and parents began using Wakefield s article as a reason for not vaccinating their children. Brian Deer, an investigative reporter, examined the story and published 36 articles which accused Wakefield of "falsifying medical histories of children." He claimed Wakefield had deliberately created fake evidence and that he had been paid to do so by "lawyers hoping to sue vaccine manufacturers and to create a vaccine scare." Lancet withdrew its support of Wakefield s article on February 2, 2010. In 2011, the British Journal of Medicine published an article stating that Wakefield received over $674,000 from lawyers. Furthermore, it claimed that 5 of the 12 children examined by Wakefield had developmental problems before being vaccinated and three never had autism. Britain stripped Wakefield of his medical license in 2011. Thimerosal Is Removed From Vaccines One vaccine ingredient that anti-vaccine activists have been particularly concerned about is thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative added to vaccines to keep them from spoiling. In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Public Health Service recommended that thimerosal be removed from vaccines. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 2
In 2005, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote an article co-published by Salon.com and Rolling Stone titled "Deadly Immunity." In it, he argued that the 2000 Simpsonwood CDC Conference was spent discussing how to "cover up" the fact that there were a "staggering number of earlier studies" that indicate a link between thimerosal and various serious conditions, including speech delays, attention-deficit disorder and autism. The article was corrected multiple times within days of publication. It was then taken down by both Salon.com and Rolling Stone. The controversy resulted in an 18-month investigation by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions which concluded that there was no basis for Kennedy's claim and that thimerosal was being "voluntarily removed from childhood vaccines distributed in the United States as a precaution." By 2009, thimerosal had been phased out of almost all vaccines in the U.S. Case Rules No Link Between Vaccination And Autism In a 2010 case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that there is no link between vaccination and autism. The decision upheld two earlier rulings. In August 2011, the Institute of Medicine issued a report on vaccines. The report stated that "evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship" between the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. However, it also asserted that the chicken pox vaccine can cause pneumonia, meningitis or hepatitis in individuals with a weak resistance to disease. A 2012 independent investigation by the Cochrane Collaboration, a health research group, concluded that there was no significant association" between the MMR vaccine and autism. Unvaccinated Children Barred From Schools State laws in North Carolina, Ohio and New York allow the public school system to suspend children who are not vaccinated. Approximately 2,000 children not vaccinated against whooping cough were barred from attending classes in San Francisco in 2011. On June 22, 2014, a federal judge upheld New York state law barring unvaccinated children from public school when other children have the chicken pox. Many doctors will not treat children who have not been vaccinated. Some legal experts believe that parents who do not vaccinate their children should be subject to criminal prosecution if their unvaccinated children infect and harm other children. Diseases That Have Been Eliminated Or Eradicated Many of the diseases for which people receive vaccines have been eliminated or eradicated over time. Elimination means that the disease is not present in a region. Eradication means the disease does not exist anywhere globally. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 3
In 1980, smallpox became the first disease to be declared globally eradicated. Polio was declared eliminated in the United States in 1979 and in the Western Hemisphere in 1994. A polio vaccine was developed by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1951. Its use decreased the number of paralytic polio cases from 28,985 in 1955 to 72 in 1965. Rubella was declared eliminated in the Americas in 2015, and measles in 2016. The World Health Organization states that this eradication and elimination was brought about by successful vaccination programs. Those opposed to vaccination say that better sanitation and cleaner water is what led to the elimination of these diseases, not vaccination. Source: vaccines.procon.org This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 4
Quiz 1 Which selection from the introduction [paragraphs 1-4] MOST suggests that some people believe vaccines are unnecessary? Opponents say that children s immune systems can deal with most infections naturally. They argue that injecting questionable vaccine ingredients into a child may cause side effects, including seizures, paralysis and death. They claim that numerous studies prove that vaccines can trigger both health and behavioral problems. In particular, they say that vaccines may trigger autism, a mental condition that makes it difficult to communicate with others. 2 Read the paragraph from the section "Unvaccinated Children Barred From Schools." State laws in North Carolina, Ohio and New York allow the public school system to suspend children who are not vaccinated. Approximately 2,000 children not vaccinated against whooping cough were barred from attending classes in San Francisco in 2011. On June 22, 2014, a federal judge upheld New York state law barring unvaccinated children from public school when other children have the chicken pox. Which statement can be inferred from this paragraph? It is unlikely that action will take place in most public schools to enforce the use of vaccines. Due to the controversy, the decision to require vaccinations in schools is rarely enforced. Students across the country will soon face punishment if they are not vaccinated against disease. Some states have taken steps to ensure the safety of vaccinated and unvaccinated students. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 5
3 According to the article, does the Institute of Medicine believe there is sufficient evidence to support the claim that vaccines are safe for all children? Why or why not? Yes, because they issued a report that indicated there is no link between vaccines at autism. Yes, because they conducted studies of multiple vaccines and found them to be harmless. No, because they determined that the chicken pox vaccine can lead to illness in some cases. No, because they only tested two vaccines, which is not enough to assert the safety of vaccines. 4 According to the article, which of the following groups or people have perspectives in AGREEMENT with one another? The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The Centers for Disease Control and supporters of vaccines The Institute of Medicine and opponents of vaccines The World Health Organization and Dr. Andrew Wakefield This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 6