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Vaccines. A biological item to help produce antibodies to provide immunity for certain diseases.
Yet, here we are during a pandemic with almost 70 million unvaccinated adults in the United States, which is why politicizing vaccinations in the face of a global pandemic is just plain wrong.
Since COVID-19 vaccinations have been made available to citizens, many have expressed their opposition to this biological aid. As history shows, this would not be the first time where citizens have expressed their doubts about the science behind vaccinations. The most infamous case of an anti-vaccination argument would be under Andrew Wakefield, a former British physician who conducted a false study on vaccines in 1998. Wakefield claimed the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccines and autism are interrelated. This falsified claim caused vaccination numbers to decrease significantly and led to exponentially increased numbers in measle cases. In addition, doctors were not able to replicate Wakefield’s findings. Then the British General Medica Council (GMC) found that Wakefield had made false reports in his study, which led to Wakefield becoming a discredited physician.
Despite being proven wrong, Westfield continued to be an anti-vaccination activist, and somehow, many still believe in his ideas today. In today’s current situation with the pandemic, especially in the United States, many Americans believe that the enforcement of vaccines is taking away their freedoms; they spread claims on the detrimental effects to health after taking a COVID-19 shot. Although bringing the number of cases down is very important, the most important of all would be how the vaccine can save many people’s lives from the virus. According to the CDC, the likelihood of a vaccinated person getting COVID-19 is very little, although there is still the chance the risk is slimmed down by a lot. That is the ultimate goal of making vaccines available to the public, which is to save and protect others.
Anti-vaxxers may argue that some of the vaccines were implemented to deliberately harm citizens. Although there have been mistakes made with, say, the Johnson & Johnson vaccines, the rest of the vaccines, such as Moderna and Pfizer, did not have similar issues. The government also prohibited such vaccines from being made available to the public after such a situation happened. At the same time, some anti-vaxxers argue that the COVID vaccines implant chips into our bodies which is a completely false statement. In fact, even the Australian Government Health Department has stated that vaccines do not implant chips into a person’s body. Additionally, some may argue that the vaccines affect one’s health in the long run; however, the aftermath of the vaccine is only temporary since it is just one’s body’s response to the vaccine. As a result, vaccines do not cause long-lasting health problems because these symptoms are only temporary side effects because your body is trying to create antibodies.
However, there is no evidence of vaccines deliberately harming people’s health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), many parts of the country are shown as hesitant to take the biological help of the vaccine.
As a result, President Biden has implemented vaccine mandates in order to decrease the cases of COVID-19. This decision has led the Republican party to become outraged, yet those officials who are opposed to this decision have faced a tremendous increase in COVID-19 cases. With that being said, it is evident there is a connection between vaccines and the number of cases: more vaccines equals fewer cases of the virus, subsequently bringing the world closer to its original normalcy. Yet, the continued intermixing of science with politics is bound to create disastrous results, which is already clear with the number of cases that appear in each state.
However, President Biden has also exaggerated the vaccines’ efficiency and stated that booster shots help prevent one from contracting the virus. This statement, whatsoever, has not been proved by the FDA, and they have not provided evidence either.
As stated earlier, ever since COVID-19, politicians have politicized science left and right. These actions have brought devastating results, as the current numbers and deaths show, according to the CDC. Past president, President Trump, was among one the many politicians who politicized the pandemic. During 2020, presidential elections were coming up, and despite warnings about the risks of having large crowds, President Trump still held huge rallies for his own political purpose. According to the Washington Post, these rallies were said to at least infect 30,000 people and kill about 700 hundred. Not to mention his influence on his followers had led to many becoming extremely careless and against mask mandates as well. This only goes on to say
COVID-19 cases can easily be decreased if only people were less hesitant about taking the vaccine. But, with politicians confusing citizens by citing vaccines as taking away their freedom and how they might be bad for one’s health, more people will express doubts about the life-saving items the government is willing to provide.
If only politicians did not misinform their audience members and bring in science with politics, perhaps the current number of COVID cases in the United States could be much lower than it is right now. Overall, the future generations to come should trust in science to build the future instead of solely relying on politics and misinformation.
