Vaccine Against Illiteracy
Vaccines weaken a child’s immune system. As an adjuvant, aluminum has been used but it leads to some nervous system disorders and Alzheimer’s disease. Also mercury and thiomersal can be added to a bucket, — they lead to autism. There is no point of vaccination if no case has been reordered for decades. And should we consider it when even weakened killed of the microbe could cause a disease?
It makes sense, doesn’t it? These points are the most common arguments of anti-vaccination activists who appeared when Edward Jenner introduced the smallpox vaccine in the end of 18th century.
Vaccination campaign helped to eradicated smallpox and still it has helped to fight against measles, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough). But at the same time, vaccine hesitant activists keep thinking and spread this ideology all over the world. In 2016, a study across 67 countries «State of Vaccine Confidence» revealed that the population of Russia (28%), Japan (25%), France (41%), Ukraine (25%) disagree that vaccines are safe.
In 2019, vaccine hesitance identified by the WHO as one of 10 global threats alongside with HIV and antimicrobial resistance.
Why is the anti-vaccine movement quite successful? Perhaps, there is a high illiteracy among human populations and their beliefs. It really sounds frightening — autism, Alzheimer’s disease as consequences of immunization…
Vaccine doesn’t weaken a human’s immune system. This statement is proved with the study provided by Jason M. Glanz in 2018, March. The immune system won’t get weakened by becoming resilient to known antigens. A human’s heart won’t work worse if a man participates in sports such as athletics, right?
However, pathophysiologist L. P. Churilov says that vaccines can sometimes affect the “antigenic mood” of the immune system, which can lead to autoimmune diseases. Still, such concerns are not grounds for refusing vaccination.
Vaccines contain aluminum, mercury and thiomersal but the dosage is too low to do any harm. There is no evidence of accumulation or retention in the human organism. Moreover, the studies of Sugarman S. D, Jain A., Sun L. H., Buikema A., Bancroft T., Kelly J. P., Newschaffer C. J. etc argue the absence of the interaction between vaccination and the diseases outlined above.
If we want to prevent the spread of infection, then we have to cover about 90% of population by vaccination. But the rest — 10% — are people that objectively cannot get vaccinated, for instance, compound intolerance. If a sizeable portion of people has got vaccinated, then the exposure to the infection rest of the population might decrease significantly, and vice versa. If people don’t have anything to defend themselves, there is a high risk of an epidemic. And it happened already in Europe (2018) — the outbreak of measles, and later in Russia (2019).
Nowadays, most of vaccines don’t contain causative agent. None at all. But there are antigens; particles which definitely would never cause the infection. The human immune system learns from these antigens on how to detect pathogens and fight against them.
The situation becomes even more important every year. At kindergartens, schools, there is no a kid without a stamp about his\her vaccination, he\she is just not admitted. In the USA, the government enrolled the taxes (500$) for a person who attend any public place without having vaccine. And anyway… as the anti-vaccine movement grows over the years, so does the probability of spreading deadly diseases. Cynically, but rightfully, Ukrainian child doctor E. O. Komarovsky once said, “You don’t have to vaccinate all your children. Do it only to those who you love the most.”
text Daria Monastiryova
translated by Yulia Filippovich
