Should Children Get Vaccinated Essay

Should Children Get Vaccinated? All parents want to do for their children is to keep them safe and protected from anything that might potentially cause them harm, and diseases are no exception to that. One of the best ways to avoid diseases is to get vaccinated. Vaccinations are one of the greatest health developments of the 20th century, and have helped to extinguish diseases such as rubella, diphtheria, smallpox, and polio. Parents should be required to have their children vaccinated to protect them, and their community, from the spread of contagious and sometimes fatal diseases, despite some of the vaccines’ side effects.

The decision to vaccinate children has been a topic for debate for many years, despite the proven benefits vaccines

This is important because many people rely on community immunity, also known as herd immunity, to live a healthy life. According to Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, “Herd immunity (or community immunity) means that when a “critical portion” (the percent of people who need to be vaccinated to provide herd immunity) of a population is vaccinated against a contagious disease it is unlikely that an outbreak of the disease will occur so most members of the community will be protected. Children and people undergoing chemotherapy rely on herd immunity to survive” (“Should any Vaccines”). Herd immunity can also be influenced by how effective a certain vaccine is. Emanuel, Ezekiel, from The New York Times, provides a great example of this, “The less effective a vaccine is, the more people you need to treat to produce herd immunity. For instance, if a vaccine is 80% effective, than vaccinating 25% of the population provides effective herd community. But if the vaccine is only 30% effective around 70% of the population must be vaccinated” (Emanuel). When you have your family vaccinated, you not only protect them but you are also helping to protect your