An Epidemic of Fear Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

An Epidemic of Fear - Essay Example The impact of their study back then is worth nothing such that even today the immunization rates of measles, mumps and rubella have not been fully recovered. About the outbreak of epidemic emerging a year before Wakefield’s research was proven to be fraudulent, I feel that there was no connection between vaccines and autism in the first place. The research was highly plausible. In his article â€Å" An Epidemic of Fear†, Offit voiced out various risks. He never lobbied the Bush administration in its endeavors to implement a program that was aimed at giving smallpox vaccines to tens of thousands of Americans. He feared that implemented this program will kill people. According to him, the preventive vaccine was a bigger risk than the risk of chicken pox itself. It was the notion of risk in his mind that triggered the anti-vaccine movement. He felt that the parents should be given the option to opt out of such vaccines and be able to see for themselves if the movement would be risky for children or not. The idea was also embedded in CDC’s vaccination schedule- the overall risk to public health after such a move was too big to allow individuals or to give them the liberty to make decisions that will affect their communities. The risk is also one of the main motivating aspects of Offit’s life. He took the risk of giving his teen children the flu-vaccine even before it was recommended for children of their age group. The risk here for him was the harm inflicted on his children if they got sick. He wanted to protect his children at any risk and he also wanted Americans to be completely educated about risk and not automate their thinking mechanism. According to him â€Å" choice not to get a vaccine is not a choice to take no risk, It’s just a choice to take a different risk, and we need to be better about saying, ‘Here’s what that different risk looks like.’