Lack of trust, and how it leads to vaccine hesitancy Examples: NOT talking. Not addressing our concerns.
If someone has cheated you and broken your trust, will you be likely to take advice from them in the future? I don’t think I would either. Vaccine hesitancy is a big deal right now. Many people are afraid to get the Covid vaccine, and the lack of vaccines for kids has caused outbreaks of once eradicated diseases such as measles.
In this blog post, I want to talk about two main vaccines: Covid vaccine, specifically the Johnson and Johnson vaccine and blood clots, and the MMR vaccine and autism, and how lack of trust led to vaccine hesitancy.
Johnson and Johnson briefly put their vaccine on pause, but it has now resumed. They went on pause after 6 women developed blood clots after getting the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, and they also wanted to make sure that their vaccines were indeed safe for use. Blood clots are a super rare side effect of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, only 6 cases per 6.8 million doses, it doesn’t mean it still can’t happen to you. Safety of the product is definitely the number one priority. According to the CDC, the six people who developed the blood clots after getting the vaccine were all women, all of child bearing age (sex hormones are higher), and had thrombocytopenia, a blood disorder where there are low levels of platelets in blood. However, the CDC says that there are other vaccines out there, but emphasizes that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks. According to news posts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r12SDjgCvkc), the pause on the vaccine may not cause vaccine hesitancy after the pause was lifted. However, everyone is different. According to a CBS survey, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1BN_syvJ_U), of those who will not get the Covid vaccine, 53% say because the covid vaccine is too untested, and 36% are worried about blood clots and other side extreme side effects. It is also important to note that 35% of respondents do not trust the government. This is a clear indication that a lack of trust results in vaccine hesitancy.
The second vaccine I want to talk about is the MMR vaccine. PBS has an amazing documentary, explaining correlation vs causation of MMR vaccine and Autism. I would definitely recommend that everyone watch that documentary to clear up misconceptions. The MMR vaccine is given around the child’s first birthday, which is also around the age where they start experiencing symptoms of autism, if it was congenital (if they were born with it). Autism isn’t caused by the MMR vaccine, but, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), it can be caused by genetics, structural abnormalities of the nervous system, and fetuses who are exposed to thalidomide (an anti-nausea medication).
According to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) https://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center/vaccines-and-other-conditions/vaccines-autism, there’s only two papers published that say that the vaccine causes Autism. Those two papers were published by the same person. Wakefield published his first paper in 1998, and then his second one four years later. He went public in 1998 to explain his work, and explained how the MMR vaccine “caused autism.” The problem was that his methods were flawed- he only had 12 participants, 8 of which had already been diagnosed with autism. While speaking out to the public and attempting to be transparent may have been a good idea, Wakefield was publishing and spreading false information. From that, he caused a lot of confusion. People became certain that the MMR vaccine caused autism, and people became hesitant to get the vaccine. Parents did not want their child to become autistic, thinking that that was what caused them to become ill. Rightfully so. I’m not a parent, but if I become a parent in the future, I want my child to be healthy. Wakefield’s license has been taken away, but something over 20 years ago has caused so much confusion that some parents are refusing to vaccinate their child.
