Vaccinations

Vaccinations: Episode preview and article.

Written by: Alvina Anwar - Writer for the Topilitical article chain

For a long while, vaccines have been accepted mainstream. It was taken as “the logical decision” by humanity, and still partly is. However, in the last few decades, the idea of vaccination has become more and more arguable by the population, starting many doubts of the government and its intentions. Both ideas seem laughable and ridiculous to the other side.

Now, there are reasons as to why people believe one or the other. Why do some trust the needle, and others don’t? Well, this goes back a long time, extending to illnesses like the Spanish Flu. As known by many, the Spanish Flu pandemic was an extraordinary and heartbreaking situation, placing its record as the deadliest disease-related event in all of history. This flu had come across approximately 500 million humans and killed an unknown amount, however, is an estimated horrific 20 - 50 million human beings.

Vaccinations, as you can see, not only helped aid a solution for well-known pandemics but as well as regular illnesses, including Hepatitis A and B, Polio, Chickenpox, Measles and many others. Although there have still been many deaths with each disease, they’re highly preventable if the vaccine is received to an individual at risk. As support to this belief, vaccine supporters and scientists have stated that vaccines contain diminished or inactive parts of a particular organism corresponding to the virus. That would then trigger an immune response within the body, eliminating the disease. Due to all these benefits, a majority of the population seemed quite alright with the idea of vaccination.

The doubt of vaccination originally occurred as early as 1988 when a group of British researchers wrote and released an article in the paper, claiming that MMR (Measles-Mumps-Rubella) vaccine causes autism in young children. Although this was purely for entertainment and was even proven wrong by England’s General Medical Council, this became the foundation of one of the main anti-vaccine points. That vaccines cause autism. Even though multiple sources have claimed the theory is incorrect, some people are still resistant.

Nonetheless, if we’re going to talk about the theories involving vaccines, we cannot forget the widely-known conspiracy theories, related to the government. Many anti-vaccine individuals believe that the government implants vaccines in their population as a way to track them, disguising them as medical care. To someone who doesn’t know much about vaccines and pro-vaccine individuals may find this ridiculous, nevertheless, there is some logic behind the claim.

To these people, they find it odd how pandemic vaccines always happen the same way. Within a few weeks, the disease takes over the worldwide population. For some months, maybe even years, the virus rampages throughout several countries and civilizations. As soon as the vaccine comes out, the once life-controlling sickness begins to fade. Although science has proved this is how pandemics come to life, anti-vaccine people often believe that the government makes it up for selfish reasons.

One of the main reasons why they accept this theory is because pandemics come out of nowhere. One minute everything is fine, but the next, the world is crashing before their eyes. Where did it come from? How did it happen? Those questions lead people to believe that WHO and other health and power organizations came up with it to cheat others into taking the vaccine, thus implanting a microchip into you to track what you’re doing, whether you’re following the laws or not, and other information they would want.

Although there is little proof behind this statement, it’s worried thousands of people and had them doubting whether or not they should receive the vaccine. That causes lots of disagreement and trouble for said illness. As you know, this applies to COVID-19. Even though the vaccine hasn’t been fully released yet, several people are already doubting it, or have decided that they won’t take the vaccine due to the idea of it being a hoax. That can slow the process of COVID recovering by a while. Without the vaccine, old civilization has a much lower chance of reverting to how it was.

Another doubt from the anti-vaccine side is how the current COVID-19 restrictions still apply even after you take the vaccine, such as wearing a facial covering, physical distancing and more. It makes them wonder what the point of taking a vaccine is since the rules won’t change afterwards.

Pro-vaccine individuals have responded to this by showing the long-term benefits of taking a vaccine. As we’ve seen in the past with the Spanish Flu, vaccines may not have an immediate impact, but they do repair the issue, to the point where civilization can return to normal. If the Spanish flu vaccine was not introduced, some believe that it may still be an issue.

So, as a result, this has become a controversial issue. That’s why our team here at Topilitical has decided to debate the pros and cons of vaccination this Sunday. To argue against vaccines, we have a guest speaker, Daniel Shin. Opposing him, we have one of our loyal members, Chang Li, supporting the needle. Be sure to check out the episode on 04/11/21. We’ll see you there!