Parents vs. Child Vaccination
Vaccinations: a life saver or a harm to children? This is a major controversial topic that needs to be looked at. A majority of the population receive their vaccinations, but it is the 8.2% that refused and the 5.8% that delayed and refused, that need to be educated more about vaccines saving millions of lives. There are many pros and cons to vaccinations that are equally significant. By looking at the outcome, vaccines are very important and cannot be dismissed without a valid reason.
If you were asked a simple question such as: what was some major outbreaks and epidemics that took place in the past that were cured by vaccines? What would you say? One thing for sure, that everyone has heard about is Polio from the early 1940s to 1952 (Smith, Humiston, Marcuse, Zhao, Dorell, Howes, and Hibbs ). This disease crippled many and took an extreme amount of lives. This vaccine significantly dropped the incident rate of Polio. When hearing this great news about this vaccine, that cures polio and lowers your chance of catching it, wouldn't everyone be running to get this shot? It only seems reasonable to help save lives and to eliminate this horrendous disease. There were other epidemics such as the measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, smallpox, etc. These vaccines have helped in many ways and has saved many of lives. Vaccines became significant when Edward Jenner concocted the first vaccine for smallpox from a cow which carried the cowpox virus. He had heard that a virus can be inoculated from a related virus so he used the cowpox virus (Immunization Action Coalition). Ever since this incident, vaccines have been put to use many times because they do help save lives!
The parents of children are the ...
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...erywhere. Like stated before, there is no correlation, from the thimerosal that is included in vaccines, to autism (Unknown). This is a myth that everyone is spreading around to stop the vaccination process in children. Vaccines do not harm children, if anything, they are preventing death. Vaccines do help children from getting the disease. The children will get much milder symptoms of the disease if they are around it, but it is not deadly to their system.
In hopes to get the point across to the non believers of children vaccinations, I argue the pros of children vaccinations. They are in this world for a reason, to help save lives. That is the number one reason why they exist. I grew up getting all my vaccinations along with many others. There was no harm done to my system. If anything, instead of trying to do it only for your child, do it for the other children.
There is a war going on against parents that refuse to vaccinate their children. It is coming from the government that makes and enforces laws requiring parents to vaccinate their children, hostile parents of vaccinated children, and doctors that refuse to see unvaccinated children. They are concerned about the potential health risk unvaccinated children pose to the public. These parents aren’t lunatics but are concerned parents that are trying to make the best choice for their children. In fact, these parents aren’t fighting alone; a number of pediatricians and medical experts are apart of this crusade and have taken the lead. They will tell you there is an agenda, “Vaccine manufacturers, health officials, medical doctors, lead authors of important studies, editors of major medical journals, hospital personnel, and even coroners, cooperate to minimize vaccine failings, exaggerate benefits, and avert any negative publicity that might frighten concerned parents, threaten the vaccine program and lower vaccination rates.” 4
For the longest time, people have assumed that if they get a vaccine, they are completely safe from that illness. However, “a person who has been vaccinated has no guarantee that he will not contract the disease, and chances are, if he does, it will be at a later age when the consequences are much more serious” (Hamdan). Vaccines do not always accomplish what they claim to. If people realized that getting a vaccine does not guarantee them immunization from a particular disease that would be a major step in furthering the education about vaccines. There have been many cases where vaccines have been administered, but the disease remains. For insta...
The use of vaccinations has been a major topic in the news lately. The decision to or not to vaccinate your child is a decision that parents face each day. For some the decision is an easy one, a no-brainer. For others, it’s a very difficult one to make. People that are pro-vaccine believe that they are protecting their children and the future generations by vaccinating them against diseases that they could potentially get. People that are ant-vaccine believe that by choosing not to vaccinate, they are protecting their children and future generations from the serious side effects that they could potentially get from the vaccination.
Vaccines are becoming increasingly hazardous for many children and parents are not being informed about the safety of their children. Current reports are linking vaccines to serious life-threatening disorders such as asthma, autism, immune system dysfunction, and mental retardation (Williams). These recent revelations are causing an increasing amount of people to claim religious and medical exemptions from vaccines. From 1999 to 2006, exemptions have more than doubled from 9,722 to 24,919 (Cronin). It is very clear that vaccinations are posing many problems for parents everywhere. Each day researchers are finding out about vaccines and are realizing that there are a lot more risks than benefits. Dr Phillip F. Incao explains: “Today, far more children suffer from allergies and other chronic immune system disorders than from life-threatening infectious disease. It is neither reasonable nor prudent to persist in presuming that the benefits of any vaccination outweigh its risk” (qtd in Spaker). While infectious diseases are becoming uncommon there is no need for any person to get vaccinated.
Vaccination was first introduced globally for small pox and later on extended to other communicable diseases which are now known as vaccine preventable disease. Vaccination is beneficial both for individuals and community. This bring us to the ethical dilemma - Vaccination of a healthy child with the intention of protecting both the individual child and the community at the same time exposing the child to the theoretical risk of exposure to disease products whether live, attenuated or killed. There was a time when people never questioned the government or their physicians. Now because of more public awareness and accessibility to medical information, they are questioning the safety aspects of vaccines.
If you compare the life expectancy before and after vaccines were distributed, the human life expectancy has increased by about 30 years! Most of everyone’s lives have been increased due to this wonderful invention of vaccinations. They have allowed us to live our lives more healthily. Vaccines have had an impact positive enough to lengthen the human lifespan, yet some parents still think they are harmful. Parents need to open their eyes and look at how outstanding and superior the pros are while comparing the pros and cons of vaccines.
When any subject takes hold of the American people and media for such a long time, it’s usually an indicator that something is not clear. Most often when a subject is clearly wrong, it won’t last as a controversial subject for long. It is very simple for any person to decide if vaccines are right or wrong for them or their children. Vaccines have unbiased Pros and Cons such as most controversial subjects. Pros and cons based on age, race, weight, health, health history, genetics and personal and collective history. We will be listing these pros and cons so you can
Vaccines have been used to prevent diseases for centuries, and have saved countless lives of children and adults. The smallpox vaccine was invented as early as 1796, and since then the use of vaccines has continued to protect us from countless life threatening diseases such as polio, measles, and pertussis. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2010) assures that vaccines are extensively tested by scientist to make sure they are effective and safe, and must receive the approval of the Food and Drug Administration before being used. “Perhaps the greatest success story in public health is the reduction of infectious diseases due to the use of vaccines” (CDC, 2010). Routine immunization has eliminated smallpox from the globe and led to the near removal of wild polio virus. Vaccines have reduced some preventable infectious diseases to an all-time low, and now few people experience the devastating effects of measles, pertussis, and other illnesses.
The fact that parents see’s vaccinations as a choice makes me think why do they see vaccinations as a “bad” thing. Then I realized just maybe some parents don’t know anything about vaccinations and prefer that they don’t put a unknown source in their baby, or maybe they are just given wrong information by other parents that don’t believe that infants should get vaccinated. I believe that every single parent should to a pediatrician/ or family doctor and ask them all the questions the have on vaccinations because at least they will get the right
Mumps, Measles, Whooping Cough, Smallpox, Polio and, Diphtheria are all deadly diseases that were once a death sentence to children and adults around the world, but there is something that can help combat these fatal diseases. Vaccinations can change the course of these lethal diseases, but some families are still refusing to vaccinate the future of the world. Vaccinations can not only be beneficial to the child itself but to rest of humanity as well. There is evidence that goes against false claims bashing vaccination and the positive effects of vaccination overrule all of the negative. Vaccination can have a positive effect on the world due to its life-saving properties, effects on humanity and the extensive amount of safety and care that
The correlation exists because some children developed signs of autism shortly after being vaccinated. However, the only real relationship between the two is the timing of early childhood vaccinations and the first appearance of symptoms of autism (“Top 20 Questions”). Unfortunately, because of this many parents choose not to get their children vaccinated. This leads to many children facing serious illnesses and possibly infecting others, because parents believe the illness is less of a risk compared to ASD even though there is no proof. A 2013 CDC study added to the research showing that vaccines do not cause autism spectrum disorder. The study looked at the number of antigens from vaccines during the first two years of life. The results showed that the total amount of antigen from vaccines received was the same between children with ASD and those that did not have ASD (Knopf). This shows that although it is not a proven fact that vaccines cause autism it is very unlikely. Therefore, parents should ensure that their children are vaccinated because they have nothing to fear. Vaccines are only beneficial to the child's
Vaccines have many disadvantages, which justify a parent’s right to chose if they want to take the risk of vaccinating their child or not. The leader of a family, not the leader of a nation, should make this choice. The diseases and disabilities caused by vaccines are too substantial to ignore. More solid, long-term research should be done before they are deemed safe and mandatory. The innocent civilians who lost their lives in this war against disease are the biggest reasons of why the weapons of choice, vaccines, should be reevaluated.
Vaccines are an integral part of modern preventive medicine. Without vaccines, not only would most malignant epidemics still be around, and the world would also be in a much more polluted era. The streets would be littered with diseased, there would have to be mass graves for the dead, and the healthy would have to be quarantined inside a sterile environment.
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).
The number of vaccinations that a child has to receive is overwhelming to a child and parent. They will also be receiving boosters and other vaccinations throughout life. The ineffectiveness of vaccinations can also be a factor in a parent’s choice. Side effects are the main concern between parents’ decision of whether to vaccinate their children. Not everyone believes that vaccinations are helpful; it should be a parents’ choice whether their child should be