Vaccines are extremely controversial. Supporters view them as life-saving preventative measures, and opponents view them as unnecessary and unsafe medicines that can cause severe adverse reactions like autism and diabetes. Some also say that vaccines contain harmful ingredients. Studies show, though, that vaccines are in fact very safe. No link has been shown between vaccines and the adverse affects that adversaries claim to be caused by them. Vaccines are very safe, well-researched, and extremely necessary.
“Vaccines are only given to children after a long and careful review by scientists, doctors, and healthcare professionals.” (“Five Important Reasons to Vaccinate Your Child”; vaccines.gov). Vaccines are extensively researched before they are available to the public, and are not just for the safety of the child being vaccinated, but also the safety of
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One of the most popular arguments about vaccines and the reactions they supposedly cause is that children vaccinated with certain vaccines can get autism. “On 28 February 1998, Andrew Wakefield, a British gastroenterologist, and colleagues [1] published a paper in The Lancet that described 8 children whose first symptoms of autism appeared within 1 month after receiving an MMR vaccine. … Wakefield postulated that MMR vaccine caused intestinal inflammation that led to translocation of usually non permeable peptides to the bloodstream and, subsequently, to the brain, where they affected development.” (“Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses”; cid.oxfordjournals.org). The Wakefield study was later found to be biased and very flawed. A case study done by Harvard Medical School states that “Evidence rejects the connection between the thimerosal containing vaccines and autism.” (“Vaccines and Autism: A Case Study”; sitn.hms.harvard.edu/). Vaccines have been commonly and very safely used since the