In recent years, the topic of vaccines has become a global issue, affecting millions of children and adults worldwide. Why? Because in the last few years, there has been a staggering rise in the number of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children against diseases such as chickenpox, measles, whooping cough, and more. While the mainstream media likes to present this group as a bit delusional or downright silly, it is important that you look at the reasons behind why these parents refuse to vaccinate their children.
Why Parents Don’t Want to Vaccinate Their Children?
- The Spread of Misinformation
Research has shown that misinformation is one of the reasons behind parents’ refusal to vaccinate their children. While to a lot of ‘pro-vaxxers’- as the term goes- often take a more aggressive approach to parents who are ‘anti-vax’, it is important that you understand the sentiment behind this decision.
No parent wants their healthy, newborn baby to suffer from any life-threatening diseases or be wrongly treated to develop conditions which might make their child’s life more difficult. But you have to admit; there has been too much misinformation spread regarding vaccinations which have led to this decision. Worst of all, this spread of misinformation has less to do with scientific research and more to do with the political agenda of certain political parties.
Over the years, we’ve seen politicians turn up research and studies that deny real-world problems like global warming and racism. Vaccination also suffers from the same fate. In countries already skeptical of Western influence such as those in Africa and South East Asia, vaccination is used as a tool by political parties to blame for issues such as low mortality rates. These campaigns are meant to shift the blame from the politicians’’ failure to deliver their promises and in turn, blame scientists who can’t be brought to justice in these countries for a child’s death.
- Allergic Reactions & Internet Horror Stories
Continuing on with the misinformation point, the internet is also to blame for parents’ reluctance to vaccinate their children. After all, scrolling through websites like Facebook, Reddit, and 4Chan, you will find thousands of stories about vaccinations gone wrong which are supported by pictorial evidence, enough to make parents fear for their dear children’s lives. However, even though scientific research has shown that allergic reactions are rare and only occur when parents don’t go to the right place, pictures have the ability to scar people. No parent will want to trust a scientific report made by people they don’t know when they have, sometimes friends and family members, posting pictures of their children’s horrifying allergic reactions.
- Misunderstanding of the word “Eradicated”
To most people, vaccination doesn’t seem important because, as many UNICEF reports would say, we’ve ‘eradicated’ diseases like measles and whooping cough. While this term is often used as an affirmative to give humanity a pat on its back, the term itself has been used very loosely. Not many people are aware that even though officially diseases like polio and measles have been ‘eradicated’, there are still outbreaks that happen every now and then. Parents should be informed of this by their medical healthcare providers so they can make decisions which will benefit their children in the long haul.
- Vaccines Can Be Expensive
Unfortunately, even today there are countries in which vaccinations are so expensive that for some parents, it’s simply not an option. It doesn’t matter if they’re ‘pro-vaxxers’ or not; their economic situation simply does not allow them to vaccine their children. So, instead they skip it altogether. However, at this point, we’d like to add that there are actually combination vaccines available where you can get your child protected against multiple diseases by just one shot. Of course, that will still be an expense for parents already struggling to make ends meet, but it’s better than skipping vaccines altogether! In the end, spreading information helps people make informed decisions which will benefit them and their children in the future.
- People Don’t Trust Chemicals
At the end of the day, vaccines are essentially a combination of multiple chemicals designed to protect your body against germs. So, what you’re basically doing is adding foreign substances into your body. It shouldn’t be a surprise that many people don’t like this. After all, humans have lived for thousands of years without vaccinations– why do we need them all of a sudden?
The answer is simple, we don’t need it, but vaccinations are not a cure-all. They’re designed to protect you against diseases. Why would you want to suffer from a disease like measles and complicate your life when medical science is presenting you with an option to avoid it?
However, this argument falls apart because of other examples of foreign chemicals in our diet. People have become increasingly aware of the consequences of GMO food and contaminated water in our systems, so they refuse to cause further harm to their and their children’s bodies by injecting more chemicals into it. This attitude has got to change; the only way possible is by educating people. It’s too easy to compare vaccines with GMO food, and it’s very important that people learn the difference.
Article by: Sabin J.
