Thankfully we live in 2019. In our age, killer
viruses and diseases like smallpox, polio,
measles, mumps, rubella really aren’t too
much of an issue, especially in first world
countries. But…travel back 100 years…and
these illnesses had us dropping like flies.
Now that a lot of these sicknesses have been
taken to the brink of eradication, what would
happen if we stopped inoculating?
Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest
Questions, the channel that looks to answer
many a question, especially ones that implicate
a high death toll, I am your host Rebecca
Felgate and today I am asking What if we stopped
vaccinations? Oof. Before we get into this
video I want to let me know the last time
you had in injection… I have an HPV vaccination
coming up in a month … for the ladies watching…please
consider getting one if you are eligible…
cervical cancer is not a drama you want to
go through! Let me know your thoughts in the
comments section down below and of course
don’t forget to hit that thumbs up button…stick
around until the end of the video where I
will be reading replied to a previous one.
So, vaccination. What is vaccination? Vaccination
is like a training exercise for your body.
Small, weakened forms of disease are injected,
allowing your body to make antibodies. Antibodies
are our natural defense system. The amount
of disease injected into us allows for us
to build our army of defense, but is so small
we wont get sick. Then, if we are ever exposed
to the disease for realz, we already have
the defense in place to fight away the sickness
before we get ill and infectious.
Most people think our history with vaccination
began with Edward Jenner in the late 1700s
when he found a way to inoculate people with
cow pox to stop them developing small pox,
but actually there are records of early Chinese
inoculation from the middle ages, but some
claim they were doing it as early as 200 BCE
. Vaccination hit its stride from the 1960s
as we began finding ways to prevent major
killers and distribute the medications. The
9th of December 1979 was a major date in history
– it was the day that smallpox, a disease
that killed 300 million people in the 20th
century, was finally eradicated.
While the vast majority of people will agree
that vaccination is wildly positive thing,
there is a small minority of people out there
known as anti vaxxers, people who do not agree
with vaccinations and refuse inoculation.
In 2019, the World Health Organization, or
WHO, named anti Vaxxers as one of their top
ten global health threats. The reasons they
pose are often in defense of their civil liberties,
and others think that actually, vaccinations
are working to make them ill. Despite their
concerns, extensive scientific research has
been conducted that disproves this, and indeed
there is overwhelming evidence that vaccinations
save millions if not billions of lives…
The debate is nothing new. During his reign
Chinese Emperor K’ang came up against an
anti vaxxer! He knew what was up. In a letter
written in 1661 to his descendants he wrote:
“The method of inoculation having been brought
to light during my reign, I had it used upon
you, my sons and daughters, and my descendants,
and you all passed through the smallpox in
the happiest possible manner…. In the beginning,
when I had it tested on one or two people,
some old women taxed me with extravagance,
and spoke very strongly against inoculation.
The courage which I summoned up to insist
on its practice has saved the lives and health
of millions of men. This is an extremely important
thing, of which I am very proud.”
So say we stopped? What then. Disease….if
you please.
The short answer is that diseases we thought
we saw the back of would re-emerge and we
would start getting sick. Let me explain why.
Lets have a look at a few case studies here.
In the span of 5 years, Japan manage to lead
itself into a whooping cough epidemic. In
1974, 80% of Japanese children were receiving
the whopping cough vaccine. In that year there
were just 393 cases of the illness that year
in the whole country and no whooping cough
related deaths. Fast forward 5 years, immunization
rates dropped to 10%. That year 13,000 people
contracted whooping cough, with 41 people
dying of it. When vaccination rates went up
again, the disease numbers dropped again.
Similarly, several measles outbreaks have
occurred in recent years in the US, including
large outbreaks in New York City and Texas
among groups with low vaccination rates. The
evidence goes to show that If vaccination
rates dropped to low levels, diseases could
become as common as they were before vaccines.
While measles, mumps, rubella and polio – the
big historic killers – while they have been
quelled with vaccination, the diseases still
exist – they have not been eradicated. While
those who have already been vaccinated will
be safe, but those who have not will be vulnerable.
I found a really great image flow diagram
illustrating how immunization makes a difference
- as you can see, when sick people are placed
in a group of healthy unimunized people, sickness
spreads quickly, when some people are immunized
it spreads more slowly, and when everyone
is immunized it doesn’t spread at all. If
we stopped vaccinating, the younger generations
and the unvaccinated older generation would
be the ones to get sick… Lets take polio
as an example. Before immunization, there
were around 350,000 cases of polio world wide
– WHO estimates that without previous immunization
efforts, more than 17 million people who are
currently healthy would have been paralyzed
by the virus. Similarly, they estimate that
if we stopped vaccinating, 2.7 million measles
deaths worldwide could be expected.
People getting sick and dying is one thing,
but not all illnesses will kill you. Some
illnesses that can be vaccinated against can
cause mental disabilities or physical deformities
to those who contract it. For example, prior
to immunization about one of every 200 U.S.
children under 5 years of age got an invasive
HIB disease which lead them to develop mental
disabilities. If we stopped vaccinating and
immunizing, we would have millions of people
who need lifelong special care.
Okay, I could go on naming diseases that will
kill you or mess you up but you get the point.
If you have been immunized, you might …sod
the millions of people dying or being harmed
for life…at least I’m safe… but you
would be wrong. The tricky thing about disease
is that bacteria finds a way to mutate and
new illnesses form…. Just because you are
safe against X Y and Z sickness, doesn’t
mean you would be safe against a new pathogen…
and they are constantly being unleashed. Right
now, the permafrost in Siberia is melting
as a result of warmer climes… which means
that ancient diseases are being unleased.
Right now that sucks, but at least we can
pre-empt what may be coming and find ways
to protect people, whereas a blanket stop
on vaccination would mean that we
are all vulnerable.
Long story short – immunization and vaccination
save lives and if you don’t get yourself
or your children injected and protected you
are part of the issue. Without it, hundreds
of millions of people would die each year,
and spreads would be even faster as our population
booms. Don’t get me wrong… I very much
understand the concern with giving power to
pharmaceutical overlords – which is why
vaccinations and immunizations should be free…
and I do agree with asking questions, but
when the overwhelming scientific evidence
is in favour of injecting ….well…you aren’t
just putting yourself at risk by ignoring
it.
So guys…do you feel like you know more about
vaccination now? I certainly hope so.
COMMENTS from: What If An Asteroid Destroyed
The Moon?
I made a slip of the tongue and said million
instead of billion when I was talking about
the age of the earth – sorry about that,
I hope you got what I was saying!
Chason Brown said: I like what was said at
the end in response to Eric. It’s true.
Without curiosity and exploration, we would
all probably be extinct because we couldn’t
adapt to our surroundings.?
Gmoney4980 said: Rebbeca just served Eric
Life's Biggest Mic Drop.. Bam!?
Sorry Eric, nothing personal! I’m just passionate
about curiosity!
Broach McTeague said: I love it when your
videos have a stronger scientific element!?
Me too!
