Article Title

Vindicating Vaccines

Authors

Poonam Kaushal, New York Medical College

Abstract

Autism, an atypical complication of vaccines, has single-handedly created a public health controversy regarding the overall efficacy of vaccinating children. While experts battled out their positions in newspaper articles and TV talk shows, measles cases have been on the rise, cumulating in 2008 with the most cases since 1996. The public controversy coupled with landmark federal cases have allowed the layperson to think that vaccines are indeed harmful and as such has seemingly discouraged their use in health maintenance. Emphasis has shifted away from the appropriate scientific criterion that determines the relationship, or lack thereof, between vaccines and autism. In this new culture of vaccination fear, knowledge from scientific literature has been replaced by the irrational cries of vaccine condemnation, making children ever more susceptible to previously preventable diseases.

Recommended Citation

Kaushal, P. (2009). Vindicating Vaccines. Quill & Scope, 2 (1). Retrieved from https://touroscholar.touro.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=quill_and_scope