The Effect of Word of Mouth on Vaccination’s Popularity

Abstract

Vaccination is the process of exposing your body to pathogen via a vaccine so that your adaptive immunity can create memory b-cells to help fight off the pathogens in case you should ever come in counter with them again. It has always been somewhat controversial amongst different groups of people for a number of different reasons. However, in recent years, at the hands of a disproven, fabricated study that falsely linked vaccinations to autism, controversy over vaccines is on the rise. Some of the reasons that some may opt out of vaccinations are allergies, health concerns, and religious reasons. However, as the controversy is on the rise preventable illness epidemics are as well. A 2017 stimulation study done in Spain found that widespread spreading of these illness was heavily influenced by people talking about what they think about vaccinations (Alvarez-Zuzek, La Rocca, Iglesias, & Braunstein, 2017). Essentially, now more than ever, people are talking about vaccinations- and these conversations could likely have an impact on their overall health as well as the overall health of the population around them, especially their relatives. This recent study showed that that more people in a population that were vaccinated, the less likely an epidemic is to occur (Alvarez-Zuzeket al., 2017). However, even with this reliable information readily available, controversy on vaccinations is still high.