The Vaccine Court and the Autism Test Case, Written by Lauren L. Haertlei

Only recently, a federal injunction lifted the act forbade mandatory anthrax vaccinations for members of the armed services. The service members that sued insisted that the safety of the vaccine was not fully determined and a federal court supported the claim until the FDA determined the safety of the product. Furthermore, claims by parents who suspect the development of Autism as a link to mandatory childhood vaccinations has provided additional legal action as the parents pursue injunctions to prevent continued vaccination of their children.

A recent hysteria has spread over the United States as fast as it did in Salem over three-hundred years ago. When people can not understand a negative reaction from the medicine they look towards rumors as answers. An instance is “ most prominently actress and model Jenny McCarthy, who has attributed her son 's diagnosis of autism to vaccination,” (Smuskiewicz). There has been a growing number of rumors where parents attribute disorders to vaccines like multiple sclerosis, “other claims have drawn associations between the hepatitis B vaccine and multiple sclerosis,” (Smuskiewicz). All these disorders are known to deal with a weakened immune system, taking advantage of that fact upset parents are talking about “ toxic factors responsible for causing diseases and disabilities” to which doctors have logical counterclaims. Many talk of how those vaccines are used in order to keep the public as a whole protected from the spreading of diseases, but “...vaccine opponents fail to support their claims with plausible explanations for the biochemical mechanisms by which vaccines could cause the diseases, disabilities, or deaths that are claimed,” (Smuskiewicz). Experts were able to prove doctors correctly as the proportions of mercury to the vaccine were “too small” to cause any actual harm over a few minor effects. A multitude of

Darden, Edwin C. “Think Vaccinations Are a Pain? Try Avoiding Them in Court.” Vol. 96, no.

In recent years there has been a movement against giving vaccines to children, that now has nearly 40% of parents in the United States following along. But it is due to these vaccines that most children today have never experienced diseases such as polio or the measles such as their grandparents have. Since they have not seen these diseases, parents feel it is unnecessary to vaccinate them for fear of developing the possible side effects or because of reports they cause autism. However, these vaccines are critical for eradicating these deadly infectious diseases, and are vitally needed to keep them under control. Which makes it absolutely necessary that children who wish to attend school have mandatory vaccinations against diseases such as polio and measles, without exception. Therefor this paper will show the benefits of getting vaccinated far out weigh the risks such as potentially saving your child 's life, protecting your families, and saving your family time and money from enduring prolonged hospital stays. That the risks of getting the diseases such disfigurement, paralysis, even death, or the very serious threat posed to people with medical exemptions like those who are immunocompromised are worse than the side effects of the vaccines. And yes, vaccines do have side effects, but not one of them is autism, and there is ample scientific evidence to back it up. It is vital to everyone that the current laws for mandatory vaccination of school age

For years there has been public controversies over the advancements in science and all of the health risks that have been around, but now the use of the media has certainly boosted the amount of confusion throughout the public. Frightening stories regarding the progressions of science have been appearing online and in print. One particular example of this issue was the MMR vaccine debate. The MMR vaccine is an immunization vaccine which fights against rubella, measles, and mumps. During the 1990’s the media played a huge role in the decisions parents made regarding whether or not they allowed their children to get vaccinated. The media portrayed the MMR vaccine as having a possible link between autism. Which left the public worried about the MMR vaccine and having conflicting views and feelings towards the safety of vaccinations. In the MMR vaccine debate scientist and the media played two different roles which helped citizens make decisions regarding vaccination.

Every child born in America is unique: whether it be because of skin color, hair color, birth weight, complications while still in the womb, or difficulties at birth. Yet when it comes to vaccinations they are all treated equal and are expected to follow the government recommended vaccination schedule. Once these vaccinations have been given, they cannot be removed from a child’s body. The harm they may have caused a child, cannot be reversed. Parents need to be aware of what is in these vaccines and the possible harmful effects they can have on their child. While the official cause of autism has not been clearly determined, parents of young children and expecting parents need to be aware that research shows a definite link between

In today’s society, we believe that everything is up for debate, and that every topic can be opinionated. We like to have the power to make our own choices regardless of facts, just because we feel the pressure of being told what to do. We are lazy to learn the truth, but yet we are ready to choose sides and strongly argue about it. We see it every day on the news, in politics, sports, social media, online forums, school, etc. In his article, “Not Up for Debate: The Science Behind Vaccination”, published in September of 2015, Professor Aaron E. Carroll argues that the issue with vaccinations is more than just choosing to do it or not. Carroll jumps right into his discussion of the “Not up for debate” regarding people’s claims tying vaccines to autism, the choice not to, and officials backing them up. He explains how this argument stems from incorrect information, inadequate studies and research, and poor education about the facts and data about the vaccines, which leads to the stubborn belief that vaccinations should be banned.

Although the negative claims behind anti-immunization stances are deceptive and discredited, some parents find it difficult to accept that vaccines are necessary and safe. Many of these reasons are due to personal or religious beliefs that have persuaded parents to bypass immunizations for their children. Consequently, health officials are seeing disquieting rises of diseases that are easily preventable. The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) has reported hundreds of measles cases in the United States in 2011, the largest number in 15 years (Ben-Joseph, Elana). Essentially, almost all of these cases were in individuals who had not received a vaccine shot. Also found in the article was that a great amount of the quarrel over the shots comes from a 1998 study that tried to connect autism to a type of vaccine that defends against measles. However, there has been no scientific evidence that a vaccine or a combination of any of the shots induces autism. Undoubtedly, the doctor that wrote the article, calling vaccines a “deliberate fraud” ,lost his license for not submitting any evidence of his claim and causing people to neglect shots for that year. Sadly, due to that article, 1 in 4 parents still believe that vaccines are

In order to investigate more about Wakefield’s study, Brian Deer, a journalist of British Medical Journal, carefully talked to the parents of all children who were participated in the study. Interestingly enough, he revealed the fraud behind Wakefield’s research. The Lancet, the journal that reported Wakefield’s study, retracted the paper soon afterwards (Deer). However, the real trouble still exists. Though it has been proved by many researchers that the MRR doesn’t cause autism, many people perceive the vaccine as a threat. Dr.Nemeroff once said “it is quite difficult to get the cognitive sewage out of the water even after the real sewage is gone” (Greene).

& Andrade C. (2011), “ a groups of colleagues leaded by Andrew Wakefield has been published a dangers and very series in the Lancet,” which suggested that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine may predispose to character regression and pervasive growth in life of children(Sathyanarayan Rao & Andrade,2011). Despite the fact without enough researched and reality and the fact wrongfully speculated and brings it up to the public attention and confused parent and stop vaccination of their children.Because of this dangerous information from media and critical situations, the parent had a difficult time to vaccinate and put their lovely child’s life at risk (sathyanarayan Rao & Andrade, 2011). Not very too long that almost the same time after the wrong post, epidemiological studies were come out and reported stated that the similar posted link between MMR vaccination and autism (p 3,4). The logic that the MMR vaccine may trigger autism was also questioned stated because both are dangers for the child's future (Sathyanarayan Rao & Andrade, 2011). Almost all of the groups admitting the all mace they created, and they decided to gain benefit from this wrong action and complete by retracting and interpreted the element in the paper incorrectly. which is contrary to the findings of the original report and finally Wakefield were responsible and guilty ethical violations which they had completely irresponsible, and invasive investigations on the child’s life with false statement and scientific misrepresentation(Sathyanayan Rao & Andrade, 2011

The current issue I have selected to discuss is vaccinations. In particular, I will be addressing the anti-vaccination movement that has gained popularity in recent years and the contributing biases that influenced its emergence. One event stands out at as a major contributing factor to the growth of the anti-vaccination movement, the 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield that was published by the English medical journal, Lancet. This study claimed to show a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. Even though it was just one small study, the media picked it up and it became hugely publicized.

This led to the support of various unproven vaccine-autism theories by parents in both the UK and America. After findings of intestinal disease in children with autism, Wakefield claimed that separating the MMR into three different vaccinations would be safer. Since then, Wakefield’s research has been discredited, he was charged with serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council for violating several ethical practices, and he was investigated for failing to disclose conflict of interest – a pending patent on a rival measles vaccine (Gross, 2009). Although false, many still believe wholeheartedly that vaccines are harmful.

One such factor helping to manifest these large-scale epidemics is a study from 1998 by Andrew Wakefield, which claimed that there was a direct link between autism and the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine (Smith 1). As a result, many parents refused to vaccinate their children out of fear, and vaccine-preventable diseases like measles began reappearing more in both America and Britain, the place where Wakefield conducted his study (Cohen 2). Although a later investigation by the British Medical Journal discovered that Wakefield had distorted or altered the medical records of all twelve of the study’s participants and that he had been paid $674,000 USD by lawyers attempting to sue vaccine manufacturers, the atmosphere of apprehension surrounding vaccines is still strong among many individuals, and especially parents (Cohen 1-2). But despite all the controversy and the scientifically unsupported arguments of anti-vaccine sympathizers,

In recent years there has been a movement against giving vaccines to children, that now has nearly 40% of parents in the United States following along. But it is due to these vaccines that most children today have never experienced diseases such as polio or the measles such as their grandparents have. Since they have not seen these diseases, parents feel it is unnecessary to vaccinate them for fear of developing the possible side effects or because of reports they cause autism. However, these vaccines are critical for eradicating these deadly infectious diseases, and are vitally needed to keep them under control. Which makes it absolutely necessary that children who wish to attend school have mandatory vaccinations against diseases such as polio and measles, without exception. Therefor this paper will show the benefits of getting vaccinated far out weigh the risks such as potentially saving your child 's life, protecting your families, and saving your family time and money from enduring prolonged hospital stays. That the risks of getting the diseases such disfigurement, paralysis, even death, or the very serious threat posed to people with medical exemptions like those who are immunocompromised are worse than the side effects of the vaccines. And yes, vaccines do have side effects, but not one of them is autism, and there is ample scientific evidence to back it up. It is vital to everyone that the current laws for

There are no federal laws in place to regulate vaccines for children, but every state has requirements for children being enrolled into the public school system. Some parents believe that vaccines are more harmful than beneficial, they feel forced into having their kids immunized just to attend school. They believe that adverse reactions from vaccines can lead to serious conditions, such as autism. However, extensive studies were conducted and no link was made between vaccines and autism. Vaccines have saved millions of children’s of lives opposed to the number of vaccine induced adverse reactions, only 48 of the states allow religious exceptions from vaccinations while 19 have philosophical exemption’s.