Recently, more and more parents in society have been against vaccinating their own children because of the false claim that vaccinations are linked to autism. This fad has found its way to social media and has sparked conversation.

The controversy stems from the speculations that vaccinations cause autism. Contrary to those beliefs, autism is something children are born with. However, it may go undiagnosed until toddler years, or in some cases, until adulthood. According to autismspeaks.org, “Mutations in the genes associated with autism can affect how the brain develops and functions, starting well before birth.”

According to historyofvaccines.org, in 1995, a group of researchers out of Britain found that children that had been vaccinated with the Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine (MMR) were more likely to have bowel disease. One of the researchers, Andrew Wakefield, M.D. went on to a further study where he would try to correlate the MMR Vaccinate with autism. Wakefield, along with his fellow researchers, were unable to directly correlate the two.

Despite the lack of evidence, parents began to worry. Thus, parents started revolting against vaccinations and sending their unvaccinated kids to school to contaminate the rest of the students who have parents with more than two brain cells.

Parents are supposed to keep their children safe. When a baby comes out of the womb, they are exposed to lots of foreign bacteria. The air the breath is contaminated. They are vulnerable to any and all diseases. Vaccinations were made to protect young children, not to be debunked by some parents who read an article and suddenly became a doctor.  

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “The CDC estimates that vaccinations will prevent more than 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths among children born in the last 20 years…” As of December 2018, there has been a measles outbreak across the United States. This has become a bigger issue than is should because less children are being vaccinated. These children are apt to this outbreak due to their lack of immunizations. Due to Nebraska having strong laws on vaccinating children prior to school, I, among many of my peers, am really not too worried for my health because I received this vaccination. Unfortunately for the 314 Measle cases in America this year, they have the lingering thought of death in the future.

In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered a public health emergency for vaccinating the residents due to the Measles outbreak in that area. What began with a subtle urges for parents to vaccinate their children, turned into a ban on unvaccinated children going to school. Now, there is a $1000 fine for the parents who don’t vaccinate their children.

When I first started to see all the memes about anti-vaxxers on Twitter, I thought it was just a funny joke. Who wouldn’t vaccinate their kids? That is crazy. It’s like these parents have a death wish for their children or something.

I was poorly mistaken.

This anti-vaccination movement is real and it is a problem for many. Outbreaks are occuring, students are losing class time due to viruses going around and children are contaminating others. While writing this article, I was truly trying to find something that supported this ignorant movement. I have come to the conclusion that it is merely impossible. The study trying to prove the correlation of autism and vaccinations was debunked, vaccinations have saved thousands of lives and I think the outbreak of Measles speaks for itself.

Not vaccinating children does more harm than good. Not only can it affect the unvaccinated child, but it can affect others as well. My immune system and I beg the anti-vaxxers to do some research and save their child. Anti-vaxxers are a meme on twitter for a reason – the mindlessness is so unbelievable that it has become an ongoing joke on social media for those who have a brain.