Required Vaccinations
By: Dylan Zito, YMCA Arlington – Career Center
Vaccines are a controversial topic that is
debated all over the United States. Some people are for vaccines, and others
are very much against them. The reasoning behind each side of the issue varies
and Commonwealth Senate Bill Number 21 tackles the disputable topic of vaccines
head on.
A vaccine is defined as "a substance that
helps protect against certain diseases. Vaccines contain a dead or weakened
version of a microbe. It helps your immune system recognize and destroy the
living microbe during a future infection" by the Center for Diseases
Control and Prevention (2017).
Some
people claim vaccines can cause a variety of issues, including the
developmental disorder known as autism.
There are countless videos of children online before and after vaccines
whose parents claim the vaccine caused their child’s diagnosis. Daisana Pittman
from Bethel High School is one of the participants at MGA that agrees with that
opinion.
Many experts, however, say that autism is caused
by factors such as genetics or pesticides, as vaccines have not been a proven
cause. Commonwealth Senate Bill number 21 takes on the vexed topic of vaccines
and makes it so that children cannot be exempt from vaccines for religious
reasons.
The patrons for the bill are Marya Dunning and
Josiah Randlett, from Danville Family YMCA, were very passionate about the
topic of their bill and believe that the bill will pass. The topic was chosen
out of several ranging from marriage laws in the case of polyamorous
relationships to getting rid of English as the official language of the
Commonwealth.
Dunning feels like people are so against this
topic due to two reasons: misinformation and fear of the unknown. Dunning stated
“We are all familiar with the notion that vaccines cause Autism and though few
believe this notion, there are a multitudinous of other examples of
misinformation when it comes to vaccines.” She also believes that parents are
hesitant to inject their children with substances they cannot pronounce, and
that if they were to research, they would discover these substances are either
harmless or are injected in very low doses.
The biggest danger vaccines pose is a disease
called intussusception, which can be caused by the Rotavirus vaccine. However,
only 1 in every 20,000 infants in the US get this every year and it is much
less deadly that the Rotavirus.
Dunning is passionate about this topic because
in order to achieve “herd immunity”, which is the occurrence in which those
unable to be vaccinated are protected from diseases, at least 90-95% of people
have to be vaccinated. In the commonwealth, 95.5% of people are vaccinated
which is an acceptable statistic for “herd immunity”. If this number were to
fall even slightly, however, “herd immunity” might not be achieved.
The bill was passed in committee and will
proceed to the floor. If it passes in both the Senate and then the House, it
will go to the Youth Governor, Tommy Dannenfelser for consideration.
References:
Novella, Steven. “The
Anti-Vaccination Movement.” CSI, www.csicop.org/si/show/anti-vaccination_movement.
Rettner, Rachael. “Beyond Vaccines:
5 Things That Might Really Cause Autism.” LiveScience,
Purch, 7 Jan. 2011, www.livescience.com/9232-vaccines-5-autism.html.
“Vaccines & Immunizations.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 10 Mar. 2017,
www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/imz-basics.htm.
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