An Open letter to "Anti-Vaxxers"

Zoe Meade

Dr. Brown

8 December 2017

An Open Letter to “Anti-Vaxxers”

An open letter to “Anti-Vaxxers”

            Too many people in the world, including myself, there is nothing more important the health and safety of our children. I understand that when you choose not to vaccinate your child, you are making a decision that you believe is the best choice for their health and happiness. However, when you choose to not vaccinate your child not only are you putting them at risk, you jeopardize the “herd immunity”. With the resurgence of preventable disease, such as measles, mumps and whooping cough this letter I want to help you understand that vaccinations are overall the safest way to protect your children as well as the general population. Hopefully I can convince you that it is your duty to vaccinate your child.

First let’s address “herd immunity”. Herd immunity is a form of protection against disease, It happens when the majority of a population is vaccinated. When you choose not to vaccinate your children, you threaten herd immunity. This might not seem like that big of a deal, until you take into account the consequences. In addition to weakening the “head” and allowing disease such as measles to spread, you put great risk on those people who cannot get vaccines, such as people whose religions prevent them from doing so, and, most noticeably, the immuno-compromised (Willingham and Helft). A reason that you may choose not to vaccinate your child is because you believe their body is strong enough to fight off disease. This is sometimes true (it is still very possible they could die because of a preventable disease) but for people who are immunocompromised, the risk of dying because their immune systems are so weak (Schreier). If someone who was immunocompromised was to catch a disease like whooping cough, their chances of dying would be much greater than someone whose immune system was strong.  When Anti-Vaxxers like yourselves choose not to vaccinate their children, you are putting not only their lives at risk, but you are needlessly endangering the lives of people who CANNOT get vaccinations.

           

            Now there are a couple of myths that many Anti-Vaxxers believe in and use as evidence to support not vaccinating their children. The biggest myth people tend to turn to is the idea that vaccines cause Autism. In 1988, Dr. AJ Wakefield published a study that suggested the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) was linked to behavioral issues (Rao). Almost immediately his study was proven to be incorrect and very soon after Wakefield admitted that he had been bribed by lawyers from a lawsuit were parents were suing vaccine companies (Rao). In the years since, Wakefield has retracted his study, and no study since has been able to prove a solid link between vaccines and any behavioral or mental disorders. However, I would like the pose the question, even if vaccines did in fact because Autism, is that really worse than your child dying from a preventable disease? Not only are you sending the message that you care more about your child’s behavioral health than their actual lives, you are telling the millions of people living with Autism that their lives are literally worse than death.

            Another myth that you might be relying on to justify not vaccinating, is that the disease which many vaccines protect from aren’t around anymore. This is not only untrue, but the rise in preventable diseases has actually been linked to the growing number of people not vaccinating. Measles, for example was a virtually obsolete disease in the United States, but in 2015 a huge outbreak began in Disneyland and spread to about 48 states and the large majority of the people who got Measles, were unvaccinated. (CDC). And it’s not just Measles that has seen a resurgence, the CDC’s office website shows a growth in Hepatitis A, Mumps and Whooping cough that are up from years in the past. When you rely on the fact that diseases have seemly become obsolete, and that everybody is vaccinated anyway so your child is protected, you help diseases like these grow and spread across the country. The CDC’s article on the Measles outbreak specifically notes that the outbreak was caused by unvaccinated members of the community. By not vaccinating your children, you are helping very preventable diseases grow and spread across the country and around the world.

            Finally, a lot of Anti-Vaxxers are put off by the ingredients in vaccines. “There are too many poisons” or “Too many chemicals”. I hate to be the one to break this to you, but the whole world is made up of “chemicals”. And if by “chemicals you mean things that are “unnatural” like the aluminum, found in many vaccines, that too in uninformed. A study published on Science direct determined that an infant is exposed to more aluminum in their mother's breast milk, than any vaccine that currently exists (Melania). Additionally, many parents point out such scary ingredients as sodium chloride (salt) agar (algae) and Bovine Casein, which is a protein found in everyday cow milk (like the kind you drink and poor on cereal). What it comes down to is yes, vaccine ingredients might seem scary, but when you really look into what all the ingredients really are they are mostly things you find in everyday life. And for the really scary ones like formaldehyde, they are used in such small amounts that it poses no risk to your child. Pears and apples contain natural arsenic and cyanide, but you probably wouldn’t stop your child from eating either of those healthy fruits because they drop of poison the apple contains is less important the health benefits of eating an apple. Think of vaccines like that apple, yes there might be an ingredient that seems scary, but overall the vaccine, like the apple, is good for you!

            When you choose not to get your child vaccinated, you are not only making decisions about your child's health, but you are taking the lives of the communities around you into your hands. People who cannot get vaccinated, especially those whose immune systems are compromised (and who, might I add would love to be vaccinated if they could) are put at great risk because of your willingness to listen to pseudoscience. At the end of the day, it is a very real possibility that your child could die of a preventable disease because you chose not to get them vaccinated.  I know it might be hard to take advice for your own children from somebody else, but I urge you to look at the evidence presented here, do your own research and hopefully you will come to the conclusion that vaccines a safe way to protect your child, and your community, from preventable disease.

Works Cited

Mendick, Melania. "Aluminium Levels in Human Milk." Aluminium Levels in Human Milk. Science Direct, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2016.

Rao, T. S. Sathyanarayana, and Chittaranjan Andrade. "The MMR Vaccine and Autism: Sensation, Refutation, Retraction, and Fraud." Indian Journal of Psychiatry. Medknow Publications, May 2011. Web. 08 Dec. 2016.

Schreier, Rebecca. "Infections in the Immunocompromised Host ." Infections in the Immunocompromised Host: Practice Essentials, The Child with Frequent Infections, Immunocompromising Conditions. Medscape, 22 Apr. 2015. Web. 08 Dec. 2016.

Willingham, Emily, and Laura Helft. "What Is Herd Immunity?" PBS. PBS, 05 Sept. 2014. Web.  08 Dec. 2016.

Word Count of Letter- 1191

Where I would like this to be published- Ideally I would like this letter published in a big newspaper like the New York Times. It may seem like a reach, but because Anti-Vaxxers post a threat to national health I think that a nationally acclaimed paper publishing a letter like this would reach a large audience. It might also encourage people who do vaccinate their kids, to talk to friends and family about doing the same.

Paragraph Structure Paragraph

Paragraph One

·         The purpose of this paragraph is to address Anti-Vaxxers, show them why I want to address them, and open my letter.

·         Main Characters- Anti-Vaxxers, Vaccines and Me 

·         The Topic Strings that paragraph one uses are chained topic strings and mixed topic strings.

Paragraph Three

·         The purpose of this paragraph is to address the common myth that vaccines cause Autism and a. show that it’s not true and b. explain that even if they did, Autism is not worse than death.

·         Main Characters- Anti-Vaxxers, Vaccines and Me 

·         This paragraph also uses mixed and chained topic strings.

Purpose of my conclusion-

The purpose of my conclusion is to reiterate the dangers of not vaccinating your child as well as encourage my reader to not just look at the evidence in this letter, but to go out and do their own research. I believe that people who look into evidence themselves (instead of being “told what to do”) tend to believe it more. Additionally, I wanted to use pathos, the emotional response of reminding them their child could die, to encourage anti-Vaxxers to reconsider their stance.

Explication

I was inspired to write this letter after my young, immunocompromised cousin was diagnosed with whopping cough because a parent in his school chose not to vaccinate their child. Something I have learned in this class over everything else is that you are more invested in something you care about than a topic you pick because you think it is “easy” or something along those lines.

In my open letter I tried to utilize the many different strategies for persuasive writing that we went over in class. I used ethos, pathos and logos throughout my entire letter. I used the emotional points of your child is at risk and other members of the community are at risk of dying to elicit an emotional response, but then I follow up each of these “emotional attacks” with logical reasoning and facts from credible sources. Additionally, I tried to write at the level of my reader, and instead of using technical academic writing, I wrote more casually, and even relied on some colloquialisms. Out of the three I believe I use ethos and logos equally, as I continuously bring up “the children” (the emotional response) and the evidence that supports vaccines are safe and good for society.

Overall I feel as though this would be an effect way to address anti-Vaxxers and persuade them to reconsider their stance.