My Worldview and Opinion About Vaccination

Throughout life, we often wonder how ideas can be related to another idea. As we grow older and become more aware, our worldview is highly affected by our culture. This is why we see life a certain way. ‘Developing a Worldview’ by Deanne Spears has the best definition of worldviews. Spears says that our worldview derives from those around us such as family members, teachers, and friends (Spears). There are many aspects that go into shaping one’s worldview which can be seen through someone’s experience and from those around them. This can drastically skew one’s worldview if they are unable to think critically about their surroundings and be aware of another’s beliefs. Being aware of worldviews is very important because it coalesce with critical thinking. For example, ethnocentrism according to Spears is defined as believing “our nation or social group is superior”. This illustrates that there is arrogance within a person to think that they are better than another group which can be really detrimental to someone’s point of view of the world.

Throughout my life, my family has significantly shaped my worldview. Although the influence is not necessarily in the most positive way it has given me the most affect results. What I mean by that is I do not want the hardship that most of my family members went through. As someone whose worldviews are modern, I continue to strive in order to be able to achieve professionally. My number one value in life is education and almost all of my family members did not have a level of education passed high school. They did not focus on education to allow for a stable career for themselves. This led me to establish that their kind of lifestyle is not how I want to live and set up for my future family. As a result of seeing them not be able to keep and maintain a nine to five jobs and struggle to pay bills, I have made education my number one value in order to provide for myself and my future family an educated lifestyle that I did not have around myself growing up.

Education is my number one value. I believe that it is best to work hard now and push through all levels of education as it will all pay off in no time. Throughout my high school years, I applied this as motivation to keep moving forward. This meant that even if I did not want my studies in college to revolve around a particular subject to still take the highest course available in order to challenge myself and get a feel for what the college level would be life through taking Advanced Placement or AP for short. This allowed me to be more prepared for classes like English 101 which is equivalent to AP Language. It would be helpful for me to have experienced a class in high school for free and be able to pass it without doubt it in college where I would have to pay.

As a person with modern worldview, I am more likely to side with science over religion. Growing up I was never surrounded by religion so was never reinforced with religious reasoning. I value the more scientific reasoning in the world because I know no other way. The lack of religion shaped my worldview in terms of craving the right answers with the most evidence given. I know that not only is there scientific reasoning behind but morals and ethical reasonings as well. That is the part of me that is still evolving like the Perry’s model states.

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One social issue that holds a strong opinion because of my worldviews is whether or not the government should require children to be vaccinated for preventable diseases. This is an issue because diseases that should have been eradicated have appeared once again due to the lack of parental concern with taking their children to get vaccinated. The root cause for not vaccinating their kids was a faulty peer reviewed article that claimed that there was a correlation between autism and vaccines (Davidson). This is not true because autism is mostly said to be an abnormality in the structure or function of the brain and is likely to be present before birth. According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, vaccines are created to “prevent diseases and have saved approximately 2.5 million lives” for those who have their necessary vaccinations. Other than their being, a requirement by school institutions to have proper vaccinations, this can be avoided with children who are not enrolled or are home schooled which raises questions on who is safe or in danger. In 2019, 19 years after measles was eradicated the infectious viral disease showed up again. Those who were exposed were in Fullerton while watching the movie ‘Endgame’ (Bharath).

Throughout my life I have had the access to being vaccinated, so I think that it is important not only to make sure you have it but to find access to keep not only yourself safe but those around you as well. I am also educated and in order to get a public education you need to have all your vaccinations required on the immunization card. All and all, the reason why there should be government regulation on vaccines is because it helps everyone be safe in public. If people continue to not vaccinate their kids, rather than just one case in the city of Fullerton, there can be multiple cases that spread into other cities.

Antivaccination has been a topic that has taken over social media and on other different news outlets for quite some time now. This topic is very controversial for a few reasons, reasons which are good enough for parents not to want to vaccinate their kids. ‘Vaccine Rejection and Hesitancy: A Review and Call to Action’, written by Tara C. Smith, highlights a few reasons why parents reject the idea of vaccination, such as the ingredients being unsafe and what it can actually cause. In the article, the author discusses some reasons such as “vaccines are ‘toxic’ and contain antifreeze, mercury, ... and other dangerous chemicals that can lead to autism” (Smith). This illustrates that the message they are reinforcing to parents that vaccines cause more harm than they do to help prevent spreadable diseases. Smith’s article highlights reasons why parents should not vaccinate their children in regards to how medical science is untrustworthy. Smith values safety, the negative effects are the reason why she is hesitant about vaccinations. However, Smith believes that compiling all the inaccurate reasons to not vaccinate is good enough to risk children’s lives and other lives around them.

In addition to Smith’s article, the article ‘Exploring the Reasons Behind Parental Refusal of Vaccines’ the authors Chephra McKee and Kristin Bohannon go more in depth about why some people refuse to vaccinate. In this article, the authors explain there are more reasons that go beyond the medicinal science of vaccinations that scare people away such as betraying their beliefs. The authors explains that there are “different religions and the reasons that vaccines may violate their religious tenets” (McKee and Bohannon). This goes to show that the authors’ value personal beliefs of religion over the safety of not only children but the rest of the people around the area. Not vaccinating is very controversial because it goes beyond the safety of people and gets more technical as people find more reason not to vaccinate. I do believe that when it comes to beliefs, that a person will make decisions based on what they know on the surface. However, the opposing view is not just against vaccinations because it causes autism but also because of cultural and religious beliefs. It is known that vaccinations are important for one’s well-being, something the author may not have analyzed before making a decision, which is a key component to critical thinking.

My worldviews have changed as I got older. I gained the ability to be able to think for myself rather than relying on higher authority. I stand true to my social issue, for vaccinations are a key aspect to human growth and development. A disease that was eradicated in the early 2000’s that came back to bring a bunch of red flags. It leaves me wondering if vaccinations are something parents are against, who is to say that this issue is not going to become bigger than a case that happened in Fullerton, CA. There is a huge obstacle to critical thinking when it comes to vaccinations. I feel like there is an availability heuristic within the parents that is holding them back from knowing more than what on the surface, the truth.

Works Cited

1. Bharath, Deepa, and Leo Smith. “Orange County Confirms 1st Measles Case of 2019; Woman Saw 'Avengers' at Fullerton AMC Theater”. Orange County Register, Orange County Register, 1 May 2019, https://www.ocregister.com/2019/04/30/orange-county-confirms-1st-measles-case-of-2019-possible-exposure-sites-include-amc-theatres-in-fullerton/
2. Children's Hospital. “Global Immunization: Worldwide Disease Incidence”. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 1 Dec. 2014, https://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center/global-immunization/diseases-and-vaccines-world-view
3. Davidson, Michael. “Vaccination as a Cause of Autism-Myths and Controversies”. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience vol. 19,4 (2017): 403-407.
4. Endgame. Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures, 26 Apr. 2019.
5. McKee, Chephra, and Kristin Bohannon. “Exploring the Reasons Behind Parental Refusal of Vaccines”. The Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics: JPPT: the Official Journal of PPAG, Pediatric Pharmacy Advocacy Group, 2016, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4869767/
6. Smith, Tara. “Vaccine Rejection and Hesitancy: A Review and Call to Action”. OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 18 July 2017, https://academic.oup.com/ofid/article/4/3/ofx146/3978712
7. Spears, Deanne. Developing A Worldview [PDF File].