To vaccinate or not to vaccinate

In 2008, the United States had the biggest measles Gilbert 2 outbreak there had been in 10 years, and the reason behind this was unvaccinated children. These children could have been protected against this disease had they been vaccinated. The parents of these children failed to protect their children against unnecessary harm, and purposely exposed them to the harm of this disease, therefore; it was child neglect. Vaccination rates are dropping, and because of that, children are dying from childhood diseases that are vaccine-preventable. Choosing not to vaccinate is failing to provide your child with the means for their physical well being.

The countering argument has validity and personal testimonials, yet lacks an amount of scientific evidence and reputable sources. Looking at facts and numbers, there are no real links that put vaccines at the cause of any major illnesses, other than the potential of non-threatening side effects. The reality that there may be harmful chemicals in vaccines is eye-opening yet with no real repercussions noted, it is hard for one to argue against vaccinating a child, as they are at a greater risk for deadly disease. Vaccines over the years have saved millions of lives and eradicated once pandemic

Recent research has proven that his evidence is not credible and there is no correlation between vaccine shots and Autism. Many parents are still convinced that immunizations cause Autism since Andrew Wakefield published the article stating this theory. He has since been discredited and it was recently discovered that the article described false evidence. It is crucial to trust the medical claim that there is not a connection between Autism and immunization shots and continue to protect ourselves and our children from these life-threatening diseases such as Measles, Chicken Pox and Pertussis. The death rate from Measles, Chicken Pox and Pertussis was much higher prior to 1930, when immunizations were discovered and children were inoculated with the anti-virus shot.

In recent years, America has seen the reemergence of diseases that were proven to be preventable due to modern medicine and vaccines. These diseases that were once nearly eradicated are reemerging mainly because of the recent trend to not vaccinating children. The support behind this trend is that vaccines cause more harm than good, and lead to other diseases such as Autism. These ideals however have no factual evidence to support them as no scientific body has been able to find A connection with vaccines and Autism. While not vaccinating a child could lead them to getting horrible disease a non-vaccinated child also puts those around them at risk.

Instead he was relying on those around him to be vaccinated. So, why are people choosing not to vaccinate? What could possibly be the arguments for not protecting your children, others, and yourself from deadly, yet preventable, diseases? Vaccines are ... ... middle of paper ... ...tially over the past 60 years. The fact remains that the amount of deaths attributed to vaccines are far less than the amount of deaths attributed to the diseases that the vaccines protect us against.

Challengers have claimed that vaccines do not work, that they are or may be dangerous, or that mandatory vaccinations violate individual rights or religious principles. Some wonder, are vaccinations even 100% effective? For parents, choosing to be vaccinated is like playing a game of roulette; it’s a gamble. Deciding not to have your child vaccinated has causes for concern amongst society. Families are being bombarded with stories about the dangers of vaccines like how sick their child can get and the illnesses and crucial diseases it may cause them.

In a day where vaccination is readily available to almost all infants, it would seem nearly impossible to have an outbreak of what health professionals thought was an eradicated disease. However, recently there have been 23 outbreaks throughout the United States, and of this 23, 650 separate cases of measles were diagnosed. The problem our country faces at the moment is parent who choose not to vaccinate their children. Not only is this dangerous to them, but also to the thousands of other children who are either too young or sick to be vaccinated. Rachael Rettner, a writer for Fox News’s Health Column, said “More measles outbreaks are sure to occur in the United States because of people refusing vaccinations” (Rettner).

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.

That’s right, absolutely none. Zip, nada, do-da. The primary problem, however, does not stem from a lack of reliable information. It stems from an abundance of misinformation and ineffective persuasion. Researchers have discovered that the persuasive tactics employed by childhood vaccination proponents in attempts to combat misinformation are actually counterintuitive, in that they routinely cause parents to object to vaccinating their children even more so.

Because of vaccines, the prevalence of diseases that used to kill hundreds of thousands every year is extremely low. Because these diseases have been all but eradicated, the majority of parents have seen neither these diseases, nor their devastating symptoms. As stated by William Schaffner, chair of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University, “We’ve become prisoners of our own success. Nobody knows what measles is (Parker).” In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a group of 315 people were surveyed on their attitudes toward vaccines. After the survey, the subjects were divided into three groups.