Be Warned: Precautions You Should Take

The Anti Vaccination Lobby

The Precautions

The Anti Vaccination Lobby

There is a lobby that pleads against vaccination. It does so on the following grounds:

• It has to be admitted that some vaccines are not 100% successful. A miniscule proportion, however negligible statistically, can catch the infection due to vaccine failure, faulty procedure or have some other complications in case of personal sensitivities.
• Testing on animals is considered unethical. For example, measles virus is passed through chick embryos, poliovirus through monkey kidneys, and the rubella virus through human diploid cells - the dissected organs of an aborted foetus.
• The possible hazards caused by adjuvants (antibody boosters) used in the preparation of vaccines. Some adjuvants like aluminium, formaldehyde, and mercury are extremely toxic substances with a long history of documented hazardous effects.
• Faulty procedures may cause more harm than good.
• The fear that animal infection may cross over to the vaccine during preparation. There have been stray instances in the past when groups were vaccinated and unexpected infection spread along with vaccination.
• Suspicion that tampering with the immune system and taking vaccines prepared in animal bodies could cause immune deficiency diseases acquired from animals like AIDS

However, this lobby represents a small minority. In fact, some groups of this lobby do not decry vaccination, but ask for greater awareness and greater responsibility from the state or the body that administers or researches vaccines. In the view of the great success of vaccination worldwide, the medical profession firmly supports vaccination, despite the voice of the anti-vaccination lobby. Besides, the medical profession feels that some of this lobby’s fears are ungrounded.