To Vaccinate or Not Vaccinations and whether to vaccinate or not has been a topic that has been argued for greater than 100 years. The use of vaccinations can be dated as far back as 1000 BC. “Indian doctors traveled to households before the rainy season each year” (Vaccinations, 1) and inoculated persons against smallpox. The encouraged use of vaccinations in the United States began in the early 1700’s with the smallpox vaccine. In 1813, “President James Madison signed into law An Act to Encourage Vaccination, which created the National Vaccine Agency (now part of the US department of Health & Human Services)” (Background of the Issue, 1). Approximately 40 years later states began “mandating vaccinations for schoolchildren” (Background of …show more content…
It is believed that vaccinations save lives. “The ingredients in vaccines are safe in the amounts used” (Vaccines ProCon.org, 1) and adverse effects are not often seen. Vaccines provide herd immunity, which means that when the majority of the population is protected through vaccinations, that an outbreak of that disease process most likely will not occur. Vaccinations have in fact eradicated smallpox. The last known case was in 1977. Polio is almost obsolete because of vaccines. Medical agencies such as the Center for Disease Control, American Medical Association, the Food and Drug Administration, and the US Health and Human Services all support vaccinations. “All fifty states have laws that require children older than five years be vaccinated before entering state-licensed day care facilities or public schools” (The Law and Immunizations in the United States, 42). Some states even require college students to be vaccinated before attending their campuses. Vaccinations save families time and money by avoiding the contracting of diseases and in turn not missing work or school. Vaccine mandates are present in the workforce as well. For instance, United Regional Hospital requires every employee to receive a flu vaccine each year. Employees must follow the proper policies to be considered exempt for medical or …show more content…
Vaccines, by definition, are a “weakened form or passive form of the disease that is given for inoculation” (The Law and Immunization in the United States). As if the small amount of disease being given to you isn’t enough, add in the harmful substances that accompany them. It is believed that one ingredient, thimerosal, is linked to autism. This ingredient is organic mercury and is found in small amounts in vaccines. In the late 1990’s, a physician, Andrew Wakefield wrote an article that implied a correlation between the MMR vaccine and autism. This caused many parents to choose to not vaccinate. Formaldehyde is also found in some vaccines and is believed to cause severe to fatal central nervous system conditions. Glutaraldehyde, a disinfectant, has been found in the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine and is believed to cause respiratory ailments. Some flu vaccines “contain chicken egg protein, which can be harmful to children who are allergic to eggs” (Vaccines ProCon.org,
...he diseases they are aimed to protect from. Within the United States, vaccines have reduced the incidence of measles by 98 percent and invasive Haemophilus influenzae type b infection in children by more than 99 percent. Because of immunization, the incidence of diphtheria dropped from 206,000 cases and 15,520 deaths in 1921 to an average of just two to three reported cases each year since 1980. Despite the success in eradicating diseases, some people tend to doubt the safety of vaccination, by believing misleading information about the ingredients of vaccines. Brian Dunning in his video clears out all the nonsense arguments associated with vaccine ingredients people use to avoid getting vaccinated. The ingredients that are present in every vaccine are listed and are available to anyone who is interested. As Brian says - “Everything there is there for a reason”.
“Vaccinations are causing a major upsurge in childhood diseases, adult maladies, and even deadly ailments such as Gulf War Syndrome and Lou Gehrig’s disease” (Blaylock). Every now and then an individual’s doctor calls telling them about the latest vaccine they should receive. The person immediately schedules a time to come in and get it done. But do they even give a second thought about it? Have they ever thought that maybe they do not need another vaccination? Many people have not taken the time to seriously think about the process of immunization. The truth is, there are many dangers that the average person should be unaware of. Rarely do vaccines actually accomplish what the public has been told. In fact, a lot of vaccines contain harmful substances that have been linked to disorders such as autism. The lack of education and dishonesty from doctors are putting people in danger of health problems without even realizing. Many parents feel obligated for their children to get vaccinated because of school, not knowing they have the alternative option of refusing immunization.
There have been many issues surrounding vaccinations all around the world. Vaccines are made with dangerous toxins that can cause disorders in many different people. Dr. Joseph says that almost all vaccines are made with immune adjuvant, which causes the immune system to react in a harmful way (qtd. in Garcia). Some serious side effects of the immune adjuvant include lowering of intellectual and sexual abilities and death in serious cases (Garcia). Also, in a recent study Mark Geier and David Geier found that thimerosal in vaccines is linked to neurodevelopment disorders, such as autism. They found...
Why would anyone want to leave their child at risk of developing a sickness that could easily be preventable? Some people believe that vaccines do not work and are only harmful; they are wrong. Vaccines can be helpful not only to the child of the concerned parent, but also the children of other parents as well. Parents should vaccinate their children because it prevents illnesses, rarely has negative effects, and vaccines have increased the human lifespan. If an illness is preventable, parents should ensure that their children are getting the medical protection available.
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.
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
Vaccinations began approximately 1000 C.E. beginning with the Chinese inoculating for smallpox. Vaccinations became widely practiced throughout the globe. More vaccinations were invented to prevent multiple diseases such as smallpox, diphtheria, tetanus, and typhoid. These vaccines have greatly reduced the burden of the diseases. Today this practice causes controversy because many view it as unnecessary and harmful. Without the practice of vaccinations, the prevented diseases will return with a lasting impact.
Every summer before school starts I remember my mom taking me to get all of my vaccines. Although, at first I did not understand the importance I now realize how crucial vaccines truly are. Those vaccines were a major part of what kept me from obtaining harmful diseases or even passing them to other children. Vaccines are one of the safest medical products available and the best defense we have against preventable, contagious diseases. Not only are they beneficial to yourself, but also the rest of the population. Therefore, parents should be required to get their children vaccinated.
Some of the most fatal and dangerous diseases known to the human race are measles, polio, and diphtheria. Before the 1900s, these diseases caused communities to live in fear as they went about their daily activities. Since then, vaccines have been a solution created to prevent people from acquitting these horrendous sicknesses. “In the 20th and 21st centuries, many people in the United States have not personally encountered some of the diseases that are now vaccine-preventable” (p. 132). However, even with a major advancement in medicine, there are still children all across the United States that are being deprived of life saving vaccinations. The universal vaccination dilemma causes moral principles such as beneficence and justice to be debated continuously in regards to how nurses provide care to patients.
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).
Vaccinations are designed to help people go through their everyday life. A country doctor, Edward Jenner, who lived in Berkeley, England, first administered vaccines in 1796 (Health Affairs). Throughout history, vaccinations have become better to where they are safer for the human body. Everyone should get vaccinated against certain disease to stay healthy. Vaccines have been proven to make people immune to serious diseases (Childhood Immunization). By being vaccinated the person is not only helping themselves but others around them too. Vaccines are an important tool for preventing disease and should be mandatory for all people.
Just like prescription drugs, vaccines can be a harmful risk. For example, the small pox vaccine that is recommended by government health officials carries a risk for complications like inflammation of the brain which can lead to damage of the brain or even death. People who believe we should have mandatory vaccinations will say that vaccines have saved many lives, and though its true vaccines have also caused many serious and sometimes fatal side effects. There are also many cases where many parents strongly believe that some vaccines may have caused autism in their children. The reason being that many parents noticed shortly after their child was vaccinated they noticed symptoms like loss of language abilities and they were suddenly stopped interacting with people. Also, the vaccines used to treat measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) are linked to many autism cases. Vaccines that contain thimerosal, which is an organic compound that contains mercury, has also been suspected to cause autism in children. Thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines because of its linkage to autism. Scientist believe that MMR vaccines trigger a regressive form of autism, because the measles virus in the vaccine embeds itself in the intestine, causing some kind of reaction in the brain. Mercury, a chemical element, is used in a lot of vaccines can be very dangerous. High levels of
Each year, about 2.1 million people die from vaccine-preventable diseases. Many children may not receive their necessary first year vaccinations because of lack of availability, religious beliefs, and safety concerns (Healy, Rench, and Baker 540). The dictionary definition of a vaccine is a biological preparation that improves the immunity to a certain disease (Healy, Rench, and Baker 540). Although all 50 States in the United States require children to be vaccinated to certain diseases before entering school, the states also have exemptions for these vaccinations (Lu 870). Parents often choose not to get their children immunized, and it has proven harmful to the health of the global population. It is important for parents to have their children vaccinated against diseases such as measles, mumps, and polio because it is important to promote the welfare of the human race (Parkins 439).
How would you feel if the right to choose to vaccinate your child was taken away? What if after the child received their vaccinations they contracted a serious illness or even died from the vaccinations? There are many cases that have shown adverse reactions in children who have had regular or mandatory vaccination series throughout their lives. Throughout our lives, we are introducing foreign particles and chemicals into our body by receiving the vaccinations that are mandated by our jobs or school. These vaccinations start from the time we are born and continue until the day that we die. Not only are we not allowing our body to build an immunity on it’s on, 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.
For innumerable centuries, unrelenting strains of disease have ravaged society. From the polio epidemic in the twentieth century to the measles cases in the latter half of the century, such an adverse component of nature has taken the lives of many. In 1796, Edward Jenner discovered that exposure to cowpox could foster immunity against smallpox; through injecting the cowpox into another person’s arm, he founded the revolutionary concept known as a vaccination. While many attribute the eradication of various diseases to vaccines, many United States citizens are progressively beginning to oppose them. Many deludedly thought that measles had been completely terminated throughout the United States.