How Vaccination Helps the Environment

Last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a new report outlining the dangers that climate change present globally. In the same month, reports of people contracting measles in the US surfaced, despite the disease being eliminated in 2000. This outbreak is occurring because non-vaccinated Americans are traveling to areas in the world that have measles outbreaks, and are bringing the virus back to the US with them. These people, in turn, are passing the virus along to others who also have not been vaccinated. Additionally, the spread of once-eliminated diseases in the US allows the pathogen to regain a foothold in this country. Reintroduction of these pathogens could have disastrous effects on crops, livestock, and human health if we are not equipped with the proper immunity to the disease. 

Climate change will bring about higher temperatures globally. Many diseases that thrive in tropical locales will be able to survive more broadly as regions warm up. Insects carrying diseases in warm climates will be able to live in areas of the world where they previously could not survive. People, plants, and animals in these areas may be unprotected from such diseases because they did not exist beforehand. 

Similarly, climate change will bring increased rainfall to some areas, and flooding can lead to reservoirs of unclean still water, where many disease-carrying insects breed. Other diseases, such as cholera and dysentery, are caused by drinking and cooking with contaminated water.

Vaccination helps the environment in two ways. First, vaccination will limit the ability of deadly illnesses to spread despite global warming. According to research published in the American Journal of Public Health, vaccination is one of the primary prevention mechanisms for controlling the public health impacts of climate change. Though warming will likely still occur, the associated health risks will be diminished because of vaccination.

Second, individuals who are vaccinated can spend more time engaging economically (because they are not bed-ridden), and economic development can help the environment. As death rates decrease in a country, there is more room for a productive working class and therefore, technological advances. Technological advances then can help lower carbon and methane emissions, for example, which is one of the leading causes of global warming.

Getting regular vaccinations is important for your own health, as well as the health of others around you. This concept is called herd immunity because individuals who cannot be vaccinated for health reasons are still protected from the disease when the members of their community or "herd" are protected -- thus there is little or no contact with the disease. Of equal importance is the fact that many infectious diseases will be able to spread under conditions of climate change, and vaccination is one of the best ways to prevent and limit this from occurring.

Questions, thoughts, or other commentary? Let's discuss in the comments below!