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Every year, an estimated quarter to half a million people die from the flu (Immunization
Seasonal, 2014). During years of flu pandemics, this number is even higher. Throughout the
campaign is
This source and program was headed by David J. Sencer, who has a thorough background in
public health with having been in charge of the 1976 immunization program, the Health
Commission of New York City for four years, and the director of the CDC for 11 years. This
budget of $137 million (in todays time about $575 million) is rather minimal compared to the
federal governments projected spending amount this year of $3.9 trillion (Federal Spending,
n.d.). With the budget of a similar immunization program for a highly susceptible group so low
compared to overall spending, implementing an immunization program today seems relatively
manageable, economically speaking.
Those against mandated vaccinations, however, may argue that there is a significant
increased risk in contracting other diseases and disorders, such as Guillain-Barr s syndrome
(GBS) and autism. This was the argument in 1976 regarding the National Influenza
Immunization Program, What NIIP did not and could not survive [was]finding cases of
-
syndrome (GBS) among persons receiving swine flu immunizations (Sencer &
Millar, 2006, p. 31). Interestingly enough, for the 1976 year, the predicted swine flu pandemic
never became full-fleshed. Instead, there were 504 cases of GBS among vaccine recipients, of
which at least 211 of them were attributed to the vaccine and 32 vaccine recipients died
(Alcabes, 2010, p. 11). There is also a popular perception of children becoming autistic due to
vaccinations, as British gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield (2009) argued in Lancet, [There
is] a link between the three-in-one shot for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and the
development of colitis and autism in a small group of previously normal children (Vaccines,
subsequently deemed to be flawed and its conclusions were retracted by ten of its thirteen
authors. Furthermore, thimerosal has been eliminated from most childhood vaccines
since 2001 without a corresponding drop in autism ratesclearly contradictory to the
proposed causal effect of the preservative. (p. 119)
Thus, the concern of vaccinations causing autism is unwarranted and rescinded, both by its own
authors and the scientific community. With a decrease in the use of thimerosal in child vaccines,
and no corresponding drop in autism rates, a relationship between the two is not supported. With
autism being a neurodevelopment disorder mainly thought to be genetic, environmental factors
(any factor influencing living organisms) such as vaccination would not be a very profound
cause. This false belief may be furthered by the fact that most children show signs of autism in
References
Alcabes, P. (2010). Flu Vaccination in Historical Perspective: Public Health for the Middle
Class. Social Alternatives, 29(2), 8-14.
Bambery, B., Selgelid, M., Maslen, H., Pollard, A. J., & Savulescu, J. (2013). The Case for
Mandatory Flu Vaccination of Children. American Journal Of Bioethics, 13(9), 38-40.
doi:10.1080/15265161.2013.813602
Cinatl, J. Jr., Doerr, H. W., Michaelis, M. (2009). An Influenza A H1N1 Virus RevivalPandemic
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