BBC News. (2018, September 18). Child vaccination numbers fall in England. BBC. Retrieved June 5, 2019, from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-45565674
Cai, W., Lu, D., & Reinhard, S. (2019, June 3). Largest U.S. Measles Outbreak in 25 Years Surpasses 800 Cases. New York Times. Retrieved June 6, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/health/measles-outbreak.html (Reference purpose only)
a. This article discusses how the percentage of two-year old children in England who have been vaccinated for the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) have fallen for four consecutive years since 2014. Just over 9 out of 10 two-year old children (91.2%) had been vaccinated with the MMR in 2017-2018, which was a decrease compared to the 92.3% in 2012-2013.
b. The importance of this trend is that this could be the start of another outbreak of deadly diseases that have historically killed many people. Recently in the United States, we saw measle outbreaks in major cities, which surpassed 980 cases. This is the worst outbreak in the last 25 years within the U.S. (Cai, Lu, and Reinhard, 2019, para. 1).
In the case in England, the proof that vaccinations are effective can be seen when Britain was declared free of endemic measles in 2017- but with the increase of children being unvaccinated, the threat of measles coming back cannot be ignored.
At the end of the article, Jonathan Ball, professor of Molecular Virology in the University of Nottingham, claims it is important “to try to understand why people are not getting their children vaccinated so that measures can be put in place to overcome these barriers (“Child vaccination”, 2018, para. 19). The article claims that some parents, like Juliette Bryant, claim that they are not vaccinating their children because they don’t trust that vaccines are safe for them. The NHS (National Health Service), claims that the vaccinations have been thoroughly tested before releasing them for the general public. However, with the increase in people choosing not to vaccinate their children due to the fear that they are unsafe, further demonstrations that prove vaccines are safe must be done to get the vaccination rates back to where they were before or even hopefully higher than it ever was.
c. I do agree with the conclusions the article claim- something must be done with the declining vaccination rates, especially because we have seen outbreaks of measles in the United States due to the anti-vaccination movement. However, I do not agree with how data is presented in the graph provided by the NHS. The x-axis starts at 70, which creates a more close-up and dramatic looking graph. But in reality, the vaccination rate dropped by a mere 1.1% over the course of 5 years, which means if the graph was to start at the x-axis being 0, the graph would be very close to a straight line. I understand how the graph must be magnified in the 70 to 100 percent regions of the y-axis to see the significance, but I also feel that this could be a form of manipulation. In this case, the data depicted on the graph makes the public more likely to be inclined to take action to bring the rates back because the decline looks like it is a significant amount. Overall, I think it is important to remember how data can be presented in different ways and always be aware of what is being presented to you.
d. I would like to understand the details of the parents who don’t trust vaccines to be safe enough. The article does not go deep into why parents think vaccines aren’t safe- but I want to know what made them develop that idea. Was it because there are so many vaccinations that children are required to take? Were questionable information given to them? If so, where? Were there reliable studies presented that proves the dangers of vaccines? I would like to better understand these detail because as the article claims, it is important to understand why people are avoiding vaccines to increase the vaccination rate again.
e. Yes, I do trust the source. I trust this source because it cites information from NHS, or the National Health Service, which is a trustworthy source of information. Furthermore, I think this source is trustworthy because it cites other reliable articles and statements from experts in the Public Health field to backup the data and facts they are presenting. Many untrustworthy sources never cite any other sources or cite questionable sources. In this article, they are doing the opposite- so I do trust the source.
f. I did not have the opportunity to talk about this information in the article since the main issue the article talked about was the MMR vaccination- but they also talk about how the percentage of children who have been vaccinated with the five-in-one vaccination (diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) are decreasing as well. To make the process of vaccination more convenient, children are now offered a six-in-one vaccine which provides additional protection against hepatitis B. I wonder if combining all the different pathogens is done to make it easier and decrease the amount of visiting the doctor. This way, children are less likely to miss any of the required vaccinations, which can increase vaccination rates. I also personally think parents may be more relaxed about vaccinations if the number of shots their children are given decreases, which could potentially bring back the vaccination rate.
I find it disheartening that the only reason why the usage of vaccines have fallen is because of one faulty study that was published made the claim that vaccines cause autism. I don’t want to live in a world where diseases that already have a cure, come back full swing because of ignorance. We already have old diseases coming back from melting icebergs and the rise of diseases immune to antibiotics, so we don’t need anymore.
I find it interesting to read that people in the UK are also starting to reject the idea of vaccinating their kids. I’ve only seen a large push for this in the US. I wonder if we will see trend of this type of thinking in developed countries.
I can see what you mean by the graph presented in the article being misleading. It is a little unsettling that researchers and journalists can manipulate data to make the readers believe what they want. As a person who reads news articles and journals occasionally journals, I would like to know what information I can trust.