Vaccines: Fact vs. Fiction
Introduction
Vaccines have been developed to prevent the spread of diseases that have serious effects on the world’s population. The more individuals that go unvaccinated the greater the chance that these diseases, that are easily preventable, are spread.
The issue of vaccinating children has been a recent "hot button" issue and highly debated. Parents have many reasons for not vaccinating their children. More often than not, I have heard from parents who say that they refuse to vaccinate their children due to several reasons. These reasons can range from religious objections to concerns about the potential adverse effects from the vaccine.
Most of the time, I have found, the reasoning the parents use does not involve a valid medical issue. Often, the resources that these parents have used to make this life choice are not reputable resources. The parents appear to be making the decision solely because their friends are doing it and they want to follow the trend. Not vaccinating a child is the “in thing.” It is quite scary to think of the potential consequences of so many people making this choice just because they want too, and not because of a valid medical condition, previous adverse effects from vaccines or true religious beliefs.
Vaccination Basics
I believe that it is important to start with the basics. In many cases one may not know exactly what a vaccine is or what it does. One also may not know about the various types of vaccinations. I believe it is important to know the basics of this subject. Knowledge is power!
Vaccinations are substances that contain a specific antigen in which our body’s immune system responds to with the intention of preventing disease (Adams ...
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...r, 2013). When clusters happen herd immunity is severely compromised putting many at risk for preventable diseases.
Should Vaccinations Be Required?
Immunizations should absolutely be required for every child, unless there is a valid documented medical reason. Vaccinations prevent diseases and serious illness. “Granting philosophical and religious exemptions becomes problematic when it begins to undermine a community’s herd immunity” (Parkins, 2012). No individual should have the right to risk the health of the community because of their personal morals.
Conclusion
It is time to make a change in our country. Immunizations need to be given until the diseases are completely eradicated, and it is time to implement consequences to those that put the herd at risk. The government needs to bind together and put stringent guidelines on exemptions from vaccines.
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Show More“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.
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
Vaccination is one the greatest achievements of public health which led to a marked decline in the rate of infectious diseases in the 19th century. (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1999) However, currently a growing number of parents are in doubt regarding the safety of vaccines and the necessity to follow the recommended vaccination schedule for their children, resulting in many parents following an alternative schedule of vaccination or complete refusal of vaccination. (Dempsey et al., 2011)
...Although these were initially set to prevent infectious diseases it has been found that there is also prevention of autoimmune diseases, birth control and also cancer therapy. While vaccines provide a proficient means of preventing diseases and improving public health it doesn’t mean all are essential to a healthy life, some do more damage if a sufficient immune system is not present. How the vaccine is formulated and distributed is important to study and follow up on to be certain it is in the best interest of your body to receive the vaccine. Vaccinations will remain present, but it is our choice as individuals to know what they are composed of and how they are administered. Immunizations should be valued and taken seriously, this advancement in technology came at a high speed, which means flaws, and errors will exist, whether we notice them now or in the future.
With vaccines more abundant we can eradicate harmful disease like HPV, influenza, and Hepatitis. All treatable and yet still common among many communities in the United States. The only chance is providing people the necessary information and requiring mandated immunizations with no exempts in every state. Then maybe we can eradicate those diseases and permanently wipe them off worldwide like small-pox. Vaccines are safe and if we continue providing them we could eventually face disease like HIV and even some cancer that have not ever been able to treat in the future.
A vaccination is the injection of weak disease-causing agents that help the body develop immunity against specific infectious diseases ("Why Are Childhood Vaccines So Important?"). It is through these vaccinations that children will develop immunity without suffering from the actual diseases that vaccines prevent ("Why Are Childhood Vaccines So Important?"). The field of medicine has come a long way. Vaccines are considered to be one of the public health’s greatest accomplishments to date. With the help of vaccines and public health, the overall goal is to prevent disease and promote health.
For centuries different diseases and infections have plagued the human race. As science evolves throughout our history, we’ve figured out how to combat these illnesses effectively, but some still choose to not protect themselves or their children and put the rest of us at risk. Mandatory childhood vaccination is essential for keeping our population safe and building a strong and healthy future. While many support this stance, some also have opposing views to this subject. Some claim that the vaccines pose a dangerous health risk to young children that can amount from anything to a weakened immune system, to developing secondary disease from the vaccine. As well, some see vaccinations as non-effective and don’t see why they should immunize and potentially put their child at risk. Also, anti vaccine parents do not feel they should be held socialy responsible for not protecting their child and putting others at risk. These are legitimate concerns, but if you look at how diseases have been irradiated, the vast amounts of research done, and countless children’s lives saved because of vaccinations, you might ask yourself why people would decide to not protect the ones
There is consideration that people may react to being told what to do, and if left to their own choice, they may choose to immunize “48 state school vaccination requirements in the US are less than compulsory allowing for philosophical/personal belief or religious exemptions. Yet these laws have generally worked well to bring about and maintain relatively high childhood vaccination coverage levels in the US today.” (El Amin, Parra, Kim-Farley, & Fielding, 2012)
To sum it all up, vaccines need to be available because they keep people alive and they can find many many more vaccinations if we have samples of ones that are already found to cure more diseases. Vaccinations are the most important thing because if we did not have vaccinations humans would be extinct and their would be nobody to repopulate the earth to carry on with living, if there were no population that wouldn't give the future generations a chance to see what beautiful earth and land we have along with all the fossils we learn about and everything we learn new
To ensure that they live a long and prosperous life to adulthood, they need to passionately think about vaccinating their offspring. Immunizing at a young age can spare their lives in the long run from Measles, Polio, Pneumococcal disease, and Rotavirus etc. A mother of a 10 month old boy was lucky when her son contracted the measles from another mother who brought her ill son into the waiting room of a pediatrician 's office. The parents of that 10 month old baby boy said they “spent 3 days in the hospital fearing we might lose our baby boy. He couldn’t eat or drink, so he was on an IV, and for a while he seemed to be wasting away. When he began to be able to drink again we got to take him home”(106 Degrees: A True Story). Due to the doctors catching the measles in time and taking prescriptions, the baby boy ended up recovering successfully. The boy 's mother Megan explained, “people who choose not to vaccinate their children actually make a choice for other children and put them at risk”(“106 Degrees”: A True Story). She also said that, “at 10 months, my son was too young to get the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. But when he was 12 months old, we got him the vaccine - even though he wasn’t susceptible to measles anymore. This way, he won’t suffer from mumps or rubella, or spread them to anyone else”(“106 Degrees”: A True Story). Megan’s son was one of the unlucky toddlers to catch the measles virus. He was not old enough to get the vaccine to protect him against the disease. However, now that the child has had that experience, it made the parents firm believers in vaccination and protecting them against these terrible diseases. Another example of why vaccines saves lives is when a mother (Michele) of two twin boys William and Andrew contracted the Rotavirus and it nearly almost killed them. When the children were ten months old, “they came down with severe
There is the well-known saying, “Better safe than sorry.” People are affected daily by diseases and illnesses that could be prevented by a simple vaccine. Specific vaccines should be required for every citizen by a certain age. The benefits of regulating vaccinations range from protecting future generations, economic savings, the safety of vaccines and the eradication of serious and deadly diseases.
As a parent, you make daily choices about your child's health and safety. You read food labels to find the healthiest foods, you ask for advice from your family, friends or doctors about what eating or sleeping schedules are best for your child's health, you even spend countless hours looking up what is best for your baby, what you should or should not do. The choice to vaccinate your child is no different. Making the decision to vaccinate your children is critical to protecting their health and wellbeing. Vaccines prevent unnecessary illness, protects the world,and helps eliminate diseases. A very small amount of parents decide not to vaccinate their child. That decision alone is very fatal and has a mass amount of consequences. Without
Vaccinations have significantly reduced the disease rate throughout the world. Usually, vaccines prove to be between 90 and 99 percent effective. This reduces disease and mortality rate by thousands every year (Jolley and Douglas 1). On average, vaccines save the lives of 33,000 innocent children every year (“Vaccines” 1). In addition, if a vaccinated child did contract the vaccine’s targeted illness, that child would, in general, have more mild symptoms than an unvaccinated child that contracts the same illness. These vaccinated children will have less serious complications if they do contract the disease; they will be much more treatable, and have a lower risk of death (Jolley and Douglas 2). The risks of not vaccinating greatly outweigh the small risks of vaccination. Diseases like measles and mumps can cause permanent disability. While there i...
Countless diseases are going on around the world, that keeps getting passed to others. They lead to people getting sick, but vaccines can reduce that. Numerous people become sick just because one person didn’t take a vaccine. That one person could, “endanger the life and health of innocent bystanders”(Singer). Vaccines can’t cure or stop all sickness, but it can reduce them which would really help. When vaccines started to be used sickness rate didn’t go up so they don't cause harm. Every since vaccines have been used, “hospitalization rates have dropped by 90
In reality most parents choose to get their children vaccinated after following doctor’s orders, getting persuaded too, or after getting blackmailed. Any how, most parents who reject vaccines is due to past experiences. Such as in Nikie DesRoches case, she no longer supports vaccines after her daughter’s heart stopped due