| Keywords [eng] |
inoculation, variolation, anti-vaccination, vaccine hesitancy, vaccine skepticism,smallpox, measles, COVID 19 |
| Abstract [eng] |
The anti-vaccination movement, along with its continuing rise in the recent years, is proving to be significant challenge to the field of public health. Although vaccination has been universally accepted to be a powerful tool to prevent disease cases and outbreaks, a growing trend in vaccine critical attitudes is proving to be a challenge to the public health sector, where reduced vaccine acceptance is resulting in localized outbreaks in the affected communities. The role of campaigns against vaccination targets the vulnerable and uninformed and leaves a lasting impact for future generations. Looking at the past along with the present and future, this paper aims to focus on the role of anti-vaccination in terms of disease control and its effect on managing infectious diseases that could be controlled via thorough vaccination campaigns. Past: In the past, anti-vaccination movements targeting the safety and effectiveness of the smallpox vaccine were majorly impactful. Coming from a time of confusion and misunderstanding towards infectious disease transmission and occurrence, vaccine critical attitudes were rampant in managing disease outbreaks, specifically smallpox, which was the first disease controlled via thorough anti-vaccination campaigns. Present: Despite a unanimous acceptance of the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, an unverified study published by British physician Andrew Wakefield showed the long-term impact of a misinformation campaign towards vaccination. Resulting in large-scale measles outbreaks to this day, misinformation campaigns in the same vein as the measles showed how susceptible certain communities are to vaccine skeptical attitudes. This susceptibility results in long term reduction of vaccine acceptance in communities previously thought to be protected via vaccination and leads to outbreaks affecting hundreds of individuals and costing the local health systems great financial tolls along with thousands of man-hours spent on handling these preventable outbreaks. Future: The COVID-19 pandemic, beyond its global toll on human life, was a case study on the impact of a modern global outbreak and the future management of pandemics via vaccination and global response. Despite an effective and safe vaccine developed to curb COVID-19 cases and transmission, vaccine skeptical attitudes spurned on by social media platforms led to reduced vaccine acceptance and a growth of public distrust towards the medical community. This conceptual distrust of vaccination will be an ongoing issue going into the future as the potential threat of biological terrorism and warfare along with the impact of social media will be a pressing issue in a world more connected than ever before in history. |
