In this scholarly journal, Ayelet Evrony and Arthur Caplan discuss how the anti-vaccination movement has impacted society. They discuss the measles outbreak that happened in Disneyland in 2014 and how it could have been prevented just by a few shots. Over fifty people were infected just because a few parents decided to leave their children unvaccinated. They also discuss how organized anti-vaccination groups have attributed to the rising trend of leaving children without their shots, putting society at risk. They highlight that a group called “A Voice for Choice” has a high traffic website that explains the risks involved with allowing children to be vaccinated. Not only this but they also push their viewers to lobby for the exemption of vaccination for all children. This website has had thousands of shared links since its creation. They also discuss how A Voice for Choice spreads the false information that vaccinations are linked to diseases such as AIDS, cancer, and even peanut allergies. This is obviously a huge issue because not only are they putting lives and public health at risk, but they are persuading their audience with false information. The website also has parents post pictures of their children before and after their vaccination to showcase the injuries involved. This is all fake evidence being used to give some structure to their weak argument. 

This is a news source called NPR that is reporting on the current state of the anti-vaccination movement in America. In this article they discuss how Facebook is planning to pull anti-vaccination posts from their website because of the public health risk. This is one of the main ways anti vaxxers are voicing their opinion and trying to persuade others in their social circle. This is obviously not good PR for facebook as they are being seen as the meeting place for a very destructive group of people. NPR goes into detail about how facebook plans on taking misinformation out of the recommended feed, or just banning the pages outright. Not only this, but they also plan on the removal of ads on these pages so there is no monetary incentive for spreading the misinformation. Mark Zuckerberg even addressed the issue, stating that the pages are a direct threat to public health. NPR then goes on to cover how Facebook plans on further countering the issue by pairing up with organizations like the CDC to spread factual information on the subject, and to help solve the growing issue on their site.

In this source Forbes uses a graph to depict the rise in mumps cases in the last few years. Before 2006 there was less than 1000 cases every year. Suddenly that number jumped to almost 7000 in 2006. This sort of thing just does not happen by chance and is great evidence of the negative impact the antivax movement has of society. For the number of cases of a serious disease to just jump by a factor of seven, there has to be something seriously wrong. Forbes goes on to reinforce this by blaming the increase on fear-mongering antivax followers and their presence in social media. Forbes claims one of the main driving points of antivax members is that vaccines cause autism. This is one of the most effective ways to get followers for their movement because autism is something currently plaguing the world right now, and only getting worse. By blaming the cause on vaccines they effectively get more members (mostly parents) to join their cause, which ironically causes more diseases than it prevents.

In this Youtube video, ASAP Science attacks the anti-vaccination argument from all the angles of the argument. They discuss how vaccines do in fact contain some heavy metals such as aluminum, but they are in safe amounts and are also there to help the vaccination work more effectively. This is a common argument for anti-vaxxers as they believe vaccinations contain all sorts of toxic chemicals but it is all blown way out of proportion. ASAP also debunks the argument that all children should be left to develop their immune systems naturally. They explain how although we are immune to some diseases at birth, we still are prone to infection by many. Vaccines give your body’s immune system a head start on building defenses against the disease and make the chances of you getting them much lower. Another point that anti-vaxxers use to get their point across is by saying vaccines cause allergies. ASAP counters this by explaining that they actually have the opposite effect, and reduce the risk of children getting allergies to certain things such as peanuts. They then go on to explain how vaccinations have prevented millions of cases of measles in the US alone by using statistics to back up their claims, something that antivaxxers are unable to do.

In this online essay  Maggie Koerth-Baker from Aeon discusses the rising trend of parents putting their children over public safety. Baker describes how a father made the NYT recently for stating how she saw nothing wrong with not vaccinating children and that it was a healthy, rational thing to do. His daughter had recently died, and of all the reasons that it could have been for he blamed vaccines. Though the side effects of vaccines are extremely rare, the anti-vaccine community chooses to use that as one of their main points of argument. A doctor responded to this, saying that the medical field needs to be careful of their public relationship because if these fears spread there could be dire consequences. Baker goes on to explain how not being vaccinated hurts our herd immunity by making more potential hosts which can infect those too young or sick to get the vaccines.

In this blog Todd W talks about the arguments made by antivaxxers and then swiftly debunks them with statistics. He talks about how the mumps vaccine has never even had mercury in it, and it is perfectly safe for anyone to take besides newborns and those that are very ill. He also talks about how there have been studies done that proved there was no link between autism and vaccinations. This is one of the main points the antivax movement uses to gain followers and justify their actions and the fact that there is no evidence behind anything really puts things into perspective. Another point covered in the blog is that antivaxxers believe the hepatitis B vaccine is not necessary because it is a sexually transmitted disease. He explains that while this is true, hep B can go undiagnosed and be spread just by contact with bodily fluids. If contracted at a young age it can even cause liver cancer.

In this article Megan Sandlin tells the story of how she joined the anti vaccination movement, and also how she ended up leaving it. Sandlin explains how she got into a parenting movement called “crunchy” parenting which involved doing hippy stuff like cloth diapers and home births. She made some friends while living this lifestyle that fear mongered her into not vaccinating her children. They told her that her breast milk was enough to protect her children for disease and that the vaccines were just full of poison. She even held off on taking her child to the doctor until she was six months old to which her new friends cheered at. Not only this but she also began liking antivaxx groups on Facebook and following blogs of the same sort. Sandlin eventually began to question her own views when she began to do a little digging on the CDC website. She found that everything she had been taught by her new friends was actually the opposite of the truth. After she read through all the statistics she was convinced she was making a mistake and did a complete 180 on her views and got both of her children the vaccinations they needed. This story is a great example of how being misled by false information can have very real consequences. 

In this article Medpage Today talks about how physicians are reporting more vaccine refusals than ever before. This caused the AAP to issue an advisory for doctors to be honest with their patients about the importance of vaccinations if they were hesitant. Medpage goes on to explain that 87% of physicians have reported getting vaccine refusals from multiple patients in 2013. This really shows how the antivax movement is just getting more and more members as the years tick by. 72% of physicians also reported that parents wanted to delay their child being vaccinated for fear that it may cause harm to their immune system by overwhelming it. This is just more misinformation being spread and it is shocking just how common it is becoming, especially in the united states. The source then goes on to explain how we can minimize this by explaining the facts behind why immunization is so vital to public health, and how it rarely causes any side effects. This method has been proven by statistics as 80% of those who changed their minds were positively influenced by a healthcare provider.

In this essay student Nigel Ashawnte shows his point of view on the subject of anti-vaccination mothers. He explains how it is unfair to the children to not vaccinate them because they have almost no say in the matter. Not only this but they may be made an outcast, as other parents may not allow their children to play with someone who has not had their shots out of fear that their own could be at risk. He explains how anti-vaccine mothers are blinded by their opinions so badly that they fail to see the risks involved with skipping shots. If another child gets sick they may not even feel that they are responsible. A great example that can back up this claim is the 2006 Disneyland outbreak where over 50 children were infected with measles because the parents failed to protect their children. He goes on to explain that by not vaccinating your children you are hurting the herd immunity effect and therefore making it more likely to infect even those who were immunized, as no vaccine is 100% effective.