The Pros And Cons Of Vaccines

Vaccinations have become a large debate in society today. Many people feel that they cause more harm than good and the side effects of these drugs can be fatal. Other people feel vaccinations are helpful in preventing epidemics such as yellow fever, smallpox, and measles. Vaccines and immunizations are a crucial part to the health of our country and the rest of the world and without them we would have more widespread illnesses. The first vaccination was created in 1796 by Edward Jenner, an English doctor. The vaccine was for smallpox and used cowpox to create immunization, which is a similar milder version of smallpox. People were exposed to cowpox which caused them to be immune to smallpox. This discovery, made by Dr. Jenner, by

Eventually concerns about how safe the use of these drugs came about. Due to the concerns, the United States government created the National Childhood Vaccine Adverse in 1986. This created a no-fault compensation system for injuries caused by mandated vaccinations (Ballarlo, Beverly, and Sprague). The shift from people being scared of vaccines to the dangers of vaccines, the Vaccine Adverse Reporting Systems (VAERS) was created. This organization monitors the safety of vaccinations that have been put on the market. After these organizations were put in place, the government began to push being vaccinated with multiple campaigns and organizations that made them more available. These programs helped to eliminate certain diseases such as polio and measles (Ballarlo, Beverly, and

Many people feel very strongly about the using or not using vaccinations. Political parties have also taken a stand on the issue but the according to recent polls their views do not oppose one another("Democrats and Republicans Mostly Agree About Vaccines, Research Shows"). According to Dan Khan of Yale Law School, the issue of vaccinations have are a generally agreed upon issue. Khan surveyed over 2,000 individuals in the United States and found that this issue is pretty much agreed upon, no matter what party they are affiliated with. Regarding the study, Khan wrote “There was a modest minority of respondents who held a negative orientation toward vaccines. These respondents, however, could not be characterized as belonging to any recognizable subgroup identified by demographic characteristics, religiosity, science comprehension, or political or cultural outlooks. Indeed, groups bitterly divided over other science issues, including climate change and human evolution, all saw vaccine risks as low and vaccine benefits as high. Even within those groups, in other words, individuals hostile to childhood vaccinations are outliers("Democrats and Republicans Mostly Agree About Vaccines, Research Shows").”It is shown that the people who oppose vaccinations are typically just random people, but Liberals are more likely to be against immunizations. Most people feel that vaccinations are somewhat low-risk and that not