Hayley Watson Deby Jizi UWRT 1102-09 11 April 2016 Vaccinations Causing Autism, Maybe or Maybe Not Once upon a time the polio vaccine came about after the horrible disease claimed many lives and destroyed many others. My grandfather was one of those young children that had their world turned upside down by this disease. His case was caught early so he survived with minor after effects compared to some who contracted the disease. He received the polio vaccination at the hospital as one of his treatments, even though he had already contracted the disease. He saw people he knew and people around him greatly affected by this disease and when the vaccine came around and the number of new cases began to drop until there were no more, he was ‘completely amazed. He strongly believes in vaccinations, I myself have always been a vaccine advocate because I know if we vaccinate against some diseases we don’t have to worry about the horribly consequences of getting those diseases. As I dedicated my senior project to the subject of polio I found myself greatly interested in vaccinations. I concentrated on the polio vaccination for that project because it was relevant but then something happened with a family friend that greatly heightened my curiosity. The family friend had a son that was vaccinated with the ‘measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine also known as the MMR vaccine and soon after was diagnosed with autism. His parents blamed the vaccine which made me wonder, could vaccines really do that? Are vaccines causing children to develop disabilities? Vaccinations impact everyone and anyone from new born babies to the elderly. Tam a vaceine advocate because my parents and grandparents showed me the importance of them. I always assumed that everyone shared that same mind set. Throughout my personal experienceand the research I have found people all over the world have different assumptions on vaccines and they may not always be accurate. People may go by what they hear without doing much research. I decided to research the topic of vaccinations to see what people were saying about vaceinations and what information I could find to support their claims or defend mine. There is many misconceptions about vaccines and my goal is to get some of the facts cut there. I want to reassure people that vaccines are life savers not health hazards. In the book Vaccine: The Debate in Modem America, Mark Largent claims that at the beginning of the twenty-first century the British and American places of medicine have stated ‘that there is no correlation or link between vaccines and autism in children of good health (73). Also, the CDC found nine credible studies from researchers located in different parts of the world reporting there was no correlation between the vaccines and autism (Largent 73). The FDA announces that infant vaccines today contain little to no traces of thimerosal with the exception of the influenza vaccine (Largent 77). The article MMR vs. Autism: a False Choice by Alison Knopf describes that more than a decade ago an English physician named Andrew Wakefield published a study that linked the MMR vaccine and autism (1). Soon after this publication he was discredited, lost his medical license, and the study was retracted (Knopf 1). Parents are no longer able to rely on herd immunity, this happens when the majority of the people in a community is immune to a disease that has a vaccine such as the measles Knopf 1). The article The Autism Epidemic, Vaccinations, and Mercury by Bernard Rimland talks about his student finding that mercury poisoning and autism have similar biological characteristics including immune system problems and abnormalities in areas of the brain such as the cerebellum. Amygdala, and the hippocampus (5).When younger I was a strong vaccine advocate, I never understood why parents wouldn't vaccinate their children, but as I grew older I began to question what I have heard about vaccines. I heard stories about vaccines causing autism and other developmental disabilities so I began to start researching vaccines and diseases. I decided to focus more on vaccines and autism instead of diseases and the vaccines that were made to protect us against those diseases. ‘Throughout this research I have decided that it is extremely important to vaccinate your children. Thave come to the conclusion that I will vaccinate my children but I will probably get the mercury-free vaccines. I believe this will change some parents mind about vaccines because it will inform them about real tests that have been done to prove no correlation between autism and mercury in vaccines. Also if parents are still skeptical of the mercury in vaccines they will now be aware of the mercury-free vaccine option offered by some physicians (Kirby A question that is unresolved in the research that I have come upon is that the methylmercury that is tested in some of the studies is not the same mercury that is in vaccines (Largent 77). The mereury that is in vaccines is called eythlmereury which is digested differently in the body thus needs to be researched more (Largent 77). If got the chance to research more about vaccines I would like to see the side effects of eythlmercury and if it had a correlation between autism and vaccines. I would also like to research why they put mercury in vaccines in the first place. I also wonder why they felt the need to make a mercury-free vaccine if there was no negative side effects of mercury being in vaccines. I would also like to research why some vaccines have booster shots while others do not. Another question that has come up is due to the average life span of a person increasing would people need to start getting boosters for all vaccines or would the vaccine given during childhood be sufficient for life.\ Watso1 What I am doing well: believe I gathered my information and put together my information into the paper. ‘Concerns: E Z. 3, 4, 5. Thesis- I am not very good at developing a thesis Paragraph- I have never been good at depicting where to end and start a new paragraph On the voices that stood out to me the I am not sure if I have to cite them or not Do we have to put citation after ever sentence even if the sentences are back to back Tam not sure how to go about number 4