High school student tweets the highlights of her senior paper on vaccinations
Taylor Sharp just graduated from Greensburg Salem High School and is about to enter her freshman year at Slippery Rock University this fall. Before leaving high school, she wrote a fact-filled and kick-ass senior paper all about the magic that is vaccines, which is amazing, because in the age of “Fake News,” the truth is in danger now more than ever.
Sadly, in the year of our Lord 2018, there are still people who loudly doubt the efficacy, safety, and necessity of vaccines. Apparently those people either don’t own a history book or think Dr. Google knows best, because despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, there are still those who believe vaccines are bad news.
That’s why the internet’s giving a standing ovation to Sharp, who tweeted the highlights of her research paper accompanied by appropriate GIFS. Because no matter how serious the topic, it is 2018, after all.
A THREAD: i actually did my senior paper on vaccinations so let me hit you with the facts real quick
— tsharp (@taaylorshaarp) July 23, 2018
Her intro is simple, but solid.
https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/1021484791970123776although these diseases are rare, and some are even erased from the U.S. completely, they are still present all around the world and can be brought back into the country, leaving unvaccinated children at risk pic.twitter.com/MAXX06xJAY
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
Then she hits us with some pretty startling truths.
in 2012, there were 48,277 cases of whooping cough reported in the U.S, the highest number of cases since 1955 pic.twitter.com/JUpoDuisjt
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
Go ahead and come at her — these terrifying facts are backed by the CDC.
another dangerous disease that is making a return, is measles. measles is a virus that causes a rash, inflamed eyes, very high fever, and it is extremely contagious. if someone comes in contact with measles and they are unvaccinated, there is a 90% chance they will become sick pic.twitter.com/QjPK2ZIwMv
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
measles was considered wiped out in the early 2000s, but bc parents are deciding not to vaccinate their children, there have been numerous outbreaks pic.twitter.com/0cfomhlXZJ
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
She explains the concept of herd immunity.
herd immunity, is the idea that if one is surrounded by people who are vaccinated and cannot get the disease, they will not receive it as well pic.twitter.com/y4W9qpBMJ3
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
Which, if it fails, will be every bit as terrifying as screaming Homer would suggest.
since there are clusters of vaccine refusals, this is creating "hot spots" in communities where herd community immunity against vaccine preventable disease is compromised, and outbreaks occur pic.twitter.com/l3QSmN2Pij
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
Because we have some very vulnerable populations who can’t be vaccinated and need that protection.
if kids are not vaccinated, infectious diseases can be spread to other children who are too young to be vaccinated, or others with weakened immune systems pic.twitter.com/0QYijmsUgo
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
say a boy has leukemia, so he cant get any vaccines. theres also a girl whose parents dont vaccinate her, then the girl then contracts measles. her body can fight off the infection, but when the boy contracts it, he has a very high chance of dying bc of his weakened immune system pic.twitter.com/9Vy4t8Jy1b
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
just like a herd of animals will form a protective circle around its most vulnerable members, it is important for people to form a healthy ring around those whose immune systems prevent them from getting their shots pic.twitter.com/HtFtdT6awb
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
She also tackles one of the most common arguments an anti-vaxxer will cite in their claim that vaccines are dangerous — the ingredients.
many say that the ingredients that go into a vaccine are harmful and do more harm than good. this however, is not true pic.twitter.com/GwWMsE2AbU
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
there are many ingredients that stir up controversy, such as mercury, thimerosal, aluminum, formaldehyde, etc. the type of mercury found in thimerosal, ethylmercury, is different from methylmercury, the type commonly found in fish and is known to be harmful in large amounts pic.twitter.com/SqyOSpxUXz
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
Which include the pervasive (but false) idea that thimerosal is in all vaccines. It’s not.
today, no vaccines contain thimerosal except the influenza vaccine but there are thimerosal-free alternatives in replacement. these chemicals are added to the vaccines to inactivate a virus or bacteria and stabilize the vaccine to preserve and prevent it from losing its strength pic.twitter.com/zJokO3D373
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
the chemical formaldehyde is always present in the human body as part of the natural metabolic process. as a matter of fact, there is 50 to 70 times more formaldehyde in an average newborns body than in a single dose of vaccine pic.twitter.com/la8cu0Q6mC
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
Whew. That’s a lot of hardcore truth in one Twitter thread.
Sharp tells Scary Mommy that although her future plans don’t include becoming a doctor, she still sees the topic of vaccines as a highly relevant one for her eventual career. “I’m not going into anything in the medical field, but I am going to be studying international education, so I think it’s important to have vaccinations because I’m going to be traveling and could bring dangerous diseases back into the country.”
In conclusion?
the united states has the safest vaccine supply in its history. choosing not to vaccinate kids, could have the potential to be more dangerous than just receiving the vaccine in the first place pic.twitter.com/UGOgvucQu3
— taylor sharp (@taaylorshaarp16) July 23, 2018
Mic. Drop.