Modern Immunizations: Flaws and Imperfections

1477 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: the invention of vaccines

In today’s society, vaccinations are a very important part of our regular health care routine. We begin vaccinating when a child is only two months old and they will continue to receive vaccinations throughout their life (Maldonado, 2002). The vaccinations we currently administer are not perfect. They were developed mainly using luck but we have had great success rates with them. There is still room for improvement. However normal this part of our lives seems, there are still many questions scientists have about the independent context in which they work and how to perfect vaccinations so that they are one hundred percent effective.
In the 2011 May edition of the Scientific American Journal, Alan Aderem discussed the results of the devastating failure of the attempt to eradicate the HIV virus. Not all diseases can be prevented and it is not yet known why. He goes on to explore what the necessary information researchers would have to discover to perfect vaccinations such as learning what immunological responses work together to protect us from diseases. Now researchers have access to tools that will help make these discoveries a possibility. Then the history of two successful vaccinations is given beginning with Edward Jenner’s original smallpox vaccination and the yellow fever vaccination. Next, he discusses how researchers have gone about trying to discover the appropriate immune response by studying monkeys infected with similar forms of diseases. The Merck vaccine for the HIV virus was an unexplained failure in 2007. It tried to activate killer T cells but when studied, the results proved that none of the predicted beneficial results were observed and many adverse effects were contracted. The article closes with the idea that ...

... middle of paper ...

...ruly perfect the vaccine. When that day comes, we will have to decide how we are going to distribute the vaccine. Would we make it a luxury for only developed nations or would we try to make it available to people all over the world? The pros and cons of both of these situations need to be thought out. Until that time comes, researchers need to focus on how to invent such a vaccine. Whether it is a successful version of the HIV vaccine or simply a lifetime immunity flu shot, we need to get a better concept of how our body uses its immune system to ward off the unwelcome invaders so that we may learn how to help assist it in becoming more efficient at its job. This does not mean that we need to come up with a vaccination for every virus that we could encounter, but rather we need to know how to produce these vaccines in case biological warfare would ever take place.

Show More
Related

  • Deborah Lee's Point Of View: Vaccines Save Lives

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    The authors used a historical timeline to introduce a need. Stressing the number of lives lost allows the authors show the importance of vaccines. The repeated emphasis on those lives being the lives of children played on the emotions of readers. Once the need is established Lee and Carson-Dewitt clarify the use of “a dead or mild form of a virus” to create a vaccine (Lee, Carson-Dewitt, 2016, p.2). The distinction of the types of

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Immunizations

    1146 Words  | 3 Pages

    Health care is a major global issue that affects millions of people every day. In this paper I am going to review an important health care topic that includes childhood immunizations and religious exemption policies. Immunizations are one of the most cost-effective public health achievements that protect both individuals and the community as a whole. Vaccinated individuals help the community by creating what is called herd immunity for those who cannot be vaccinated due to age or current health conditions get some protection because the spread of contagious disease is contained. High vaccination rates and low incidences of diseases indicators of successful immunization programs.

    Read More

  • Vaccines: Annotated Bibliography: Vaccines

    1498 Words  | 3 Pages

    The article’s information is presented with the goal of informing a reader on vaccines. The evidence is statistical and unbiased, showing data on both side effects and disease prevention, providing rates of death and serious illness from both sides. This evidence is sourced from a variety of medical organizations and seems reliable, logical, and easily understood, no language that would inspire an emotional response is used. The validity of studies is not mentioned in the article, but it does encourage readers to investigate further to help make a decision. The article allows a reader to analyze the presented evidence and come to their own

    Read More

  • Vaccinations: Know the Risks and Failures

    1626 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...ts about the dangers related to vaccines, progress is being made. The primary issue at the end of the day should be to protect the people from illnesses the best way possible whether it be with the help of vaccines or without.

    Read More

  • Vaccines : Calling The Shots

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    I attended the IPE Film and Book Experience on Thursday July 18, 2016 and we watched a NOVA PBS documentary titled “Vaccines: Calling the Shots.” The members of my team and the college/profession they represent are listed below:

    Read More

  • Transcendentalism Touches Modern Culture

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... much advancement in medicine has been created to improve life. The most common today is the cure for certain viruses. By simply taking a shot containing a vaccine, that took extensive amount of research and self-intuition, one can dramatically reduce their chance of the virus affecting them later on.

    Read More

  • Edward Jenner Research Paper

    1382 Words  | 3 Pages

    Edward Jenner is often regarded as the “Father of Immunology” for his development of the smallpox vaccine. His remarkable discovery has laid the foundation for future scientists working with immunizations. Jenner’s impact is seen worldwide to this day with the complete eradication of the deadly smallpox virus. Edward Jenner’s Legacy will always live on as the first to vaccinate using a live virus. Vaccines are improving everyday, which benefits the public’s health, all thanks to Edward Jenner.

    Read More

  • Vaccine Research Paper

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    Vaccines have been around for hundreds of years starting in 1796 when Edward Jenner created the first smallpox vaccine. Jenner, an English country doctor noticed cowpox, which were blisters forming on the female cow utters. Jenner then took fluid from the cow blister and scratched it into an eight-year-old boy. A single blister came up were the boy had been scratched but it quickly recovered. After this experiment, Jenner injected the boy with smallpox matter. No disease arose, the vaccine was a success. Doctors all around Europe soon began to proceed in Jenner’s method. Seven different vaccines came from the single experimental smallpox vaccine. Now the questions were on the horizon. Should everyone be getting vaccinations? Where’s the safety limit? How can they be improved? These questions needed answers, and with a couple hundred years later with all the technology, we would have them(ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).

    Read More

  • The Good, The Bad, And The Hela

    1683 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jonas Salk, a virologist at the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP), used inactivated viruses (virus particles grown in culture and then killed by a form of heat) to create a polio vaccine. Salk drew blood from about two million children, which the NFIP checked for immunization. Through the collection of many HeLa cells and trial and error, the polio vaccine was ready in a year.... ... middle of paper ... ...

    Read More

  • The Purpose Of Vaccination: The Purpose Of Vaccines

    1980 Words  | 4 Pages

    Illness has been a major part of humankind’s lives almost since the beginning of time. Throughout history, illnesses caused fatal epidemics that caused deaths between young and old, and brought fear upon all for the absence of a cure. Having an illness throughout most of history was considered an inevitable death sentence, as the majority of causes of death (Offit). Vaccinations have been experimented in China and Turkey in the 15th century, with methods such as inhaling or rubbing grounded up smallpox scabs against open cuts (Clem). Then in 1700s, the first form of modern vaccination was invented by Edward Jenner with the cowpox virus acting against smallpox, giving immunity against it (Offit).

    Read More

  • Should Child Vaccinations be Mandatory?

    1230 Words  | 3 Pages

    Vaccinations have significantly reduced the disease rate throughout the world. Usually, vaccines prove to be between 90 and 99 percent effective. This reduces disease and mortality rate by thousands every year (Jolley and Douglas 1). On average, vaccines save the lives of 33,000 innocent children every year (“Vaccines” 1). In addition, if a vaccinated child did contract the vaccine’s targeted illness, that child would, in general, have more mild symptoms than an unvaccinated child that contracts the same illness. These vaccinated children will have less serious complications if they do contract the disease; they will be much more treatable, and have a lower risk of death (Jolley and Douglas 2). The risks of not vaccinating greatly outweigh the small risks of vaccination. Diseases like measles and mumps can cause permanent disability. While there i...

    Read More

  • The Benefits of Vaccinations

    1147 Words  | 3 Pages

    Vaccines against diphtheria, polio, pertussis, measles, mumps and rubella, and more recent additions of hepatitis B and chicken pox, have given humans powerful immune guards to ward off unwelcome sickness. And thanks to state laws that require vaccinations for kids enrolling in kindergarten, the U.S. presently enjoys the highest immunization rate ever at 77%. Yet bubbling beneath these national numbers is the question about vaccine safety. Driven by claims that vaccinations can be associated with autism, increasing number of parents are raising questions about whether vaccines are in fact harmful to children, instead of helpful (Park, 2008).

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Vaccinations

    1175 Words  | 3 Pages

    Not only are we not allowing our body to build an immunity on it’s own, but we are also traumatizing our children by making them receive shots on a routine basis. There are many reasons that vaccinations should not be mandatory, but the most important are the number of vaccinations, ineffectiveness, and side effects. The number of vaccinations a child receives, in the first six years of his/her life, has increased dramatically. According to “Vaccine Controversies” by Kathy Koch, “Today, an American child receives up to 39 doses of 12 different vaccines, most given during the first two years of life. And, unlike in previous decades, today’s youngsters are given multiple inoculations on the same day” (643).

    Read More

  • Immunization

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    We are always hearing on the news and in newspapers about children catching diseases and often dying from them. Why is this happening when all of these diseases are easily preventable by simply being immunised, why aren’t parents getting their children Immunised, is it for religious beliefs or just carelessness. What ever their reason may be is it really good enough, because why would anyone rather let their child be able to catch and spread a deadly disease then have them Immunised, so Immunisation should be made compulsory for all children.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay: Why People Should Be Vaccines

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    The whole world has heard about smallpox and polio but not of any recent cases, the dramatic ended of these diseases is from the use of vaccinations. Illnesses that were once deadly now can be completely avoided by being vaccinated, if the world stopped vaccinating the illness might return. Society has used vaccines for generations, however recently the effectiveness and side effects of vaccines have come under question. The value of vaccines is that they are essential to the survival of the human race, by preventing major epidemics of reoccurring viruses. This paper will expound on why people should be vaccinated, the benefits of herd immunity, the history of vaccines, how safe it is to be vaccinated, the cost effectiveness, and the benefits of vaccines eliminating deadly virus.

    Read More

More about Modern Immunizations: Flaws and Imperfections

Open Document