MORE ON VACCINE HESITANCY
WHY ARE THERE SO MANY OPPOSITIONS TO VACCINES?
“There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not to know.” - W.E.B .Du Bois
Vaccines are, without a doubt, one of the greatest accomplishments of modern medicine. But why then still there are so many oppositions to vaccines? I believe that we could better understand the vaccine opposition if we look at the vaccine history more closely. When we do, we see that the opposition and hesitancy towards vaccines were existed, even more strongly, from the beginning.
Let’s start with the discovery of smallpox vaccine. Smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases known to humanity. It manifested itself with diffuse blisters, disfiguring pustules, blindness and often death by the millions for centuries. When prominent British physician of the time, Edward Jenner (1749 – 1823) learned that milkmaids in Turkey were spared of smallpox infections, he thought and theorized that milkmaids most likely were exposed to cowpox, which is a milder variant of smallpox virus, and developed immunity to both viruses.
He decided to test his theory on children by convincing his gardener to use his 8-year-old son for the experiment by injecting the child with pus obtained from cowpox blisters. Nothing happened to the child. After a certain period of time, Dr. Jenner assumed that the child has developed immunity to smallpox and injected the child, this time, with real and live smallpox viruses. To his delight, the child did not develop smallpox. After limited clinical trials and many unfortunate events, Dr. Jenner introduced his smallpox vaccine, in 1796 as a cure and prevention of smallpox. He was simultaneously hailed as a hero and ridiculed as a quack.
No doubt, Dr. Jenner’s primitive methods of vaccine production and using human subjects as laboratory guinea pigs must have cost many deaths and complications that triggered a very strong anti – vaccine sentiment in the general public, as well as in the medical community. So much so, that one of Dr. Jenner’s peers claimed that his vaccine not only dangerous but also would leave children with cow features. This idea would hold in Britton for a very long time. Clerics also strongly objected the vaccine by claiming that “the purity of human’s body would be compromised by injecting animal matter into it. This is against Christianity.”
But over time, many more children were saved by the vaccine, and eventually Jenner’s vaccine controlled the worldwide pandemic of smallpox, and eventually became a standard part of medical care.
The Polio vaccine, which was discovered by Jones Salk in 1955, faced the same difficulties. Despite the success of eradicating polio epidemics across the globe, it was rumored that it caused sterilization in children. And as a result of this rumor, many parents refused to have their children vaccinated against Polio. Polio roared back in Pakistan as recently as 2019.
Measles, mumps and rubella were approved in 1960’s and combined into MMR vaccine in 1971. But this vaccine created one of the most infamous vaccine controversies in the 1990’s. Upon a notorious paper published in the prestigious medical journal Lancet, by Andrew Wakefield, which said that it causes autism in children. MMR vaccine rates plummeted all over the world. Measles outbreaks occurred in many countries.
As I see it, throughout the history of vaccines, there have been deep suspicions and opposition to vaccines, usually by less educated public, underprivileged and discriminated minority groups, religious fanatics, politization by certain political groups and younger generations. They think that there are malicious reasons behind vaccines, like profiteering by Big Pharma, biological schemes to reduce a minority population, anti – science, anti – intellectual, anti – elitist sentiments in general. All these causes are deep rooted and can only be partly remedied, with evidence based public educations by the medical profession - not by politicians or drug companies, because people do not trust them. Today, about 30% of Americans refuse to take the Coronavirus vaccine.
I believe we are all world citizens, connected to each other with humanity. A global vaccine summit – just like G 7 – meeting is urgently needed, to address the vaccination need of the entire world population of 7.4 billion for the sake of humanity. The miracle of science will set us all free from the gripe of current deadly pandemic.
Correction: In my previous article, I mistakenly stated that Ottoman – era Armenian conflict started in 1915. What I meant was April 24,1915 was declared, by the Armenian diaspora, as the date of remembrance of so-called Armenian genocide. I apologize for my mistake.
