Immunization is the cornerstone of childhood disease prevention. Public health officials and Centers for Disease Control provide a recommended set of vaccinations for every child by the age of 6. The immunizations that are recommended will help a child grow a stronger immune system to prevent them from getting specific diseases and sicknesses. However, during the recent decade a huge controversy about child vaccinations has erupted. Last winter, 147 cases of the measles were spread across seven states plus Canada and Mexico. This outbreak developed in California’s Disneyland. If there were no measles vaccination, an estimated 4,000,000 cases of measles would arise. Before the vaccine appeared in 1963, nearly everyone got the measles during …show more content…
The number one concern with vaccinating children is that the vaccination itself will overwhelm a child’s immune system. As Mark H. Sawyer, M.D., professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine states, “I’m an infectious-disease specialist, but I don’t see infections in children after they’ve had all the routine vaccines at 2,4, and 6 months of age, which would happen if their immune system were overloaded.” Vaccines have been around for many years, and no cases of a vaccination overwhelming a child’s system have been noted. The ingredients that are in vaccinations are safe when given the correct amount according to major medical organizations including but not limited to: CDC, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Institute of Medicine (IOM), American Medical Association (AMA), and American Academy of Pediatrics …show more content…
UNICEF reported that, globally, 453,000 children die from rotavirus, 476,000 die from pneumococcus, 199,000 die from Hib, 195,000 die from pertussis, 118,000 die from measels, and 60,000 die from tetanus each year, all vaccine-preventable diseases.
Vaccinations are essential to making sure that children are the healthiest they can be. The decision to vaccinate your child could be a life or death decision, and statistics show that the risks in vaccinating children are very slim. Vaccines have helped families for generations, and they will continue to help everyone. When making the decision to vaccinate children or not, always take into consideration what it could mean for not only the child, but for the community as a whole.
Vaccination is important because it is not only helpful to the child getting vaccinated, but it is also vital to children that cannot get vaccinated due to biological/genetic reasons, and for young babies who cannot be vaccinated due to their age. In my opinion, the government should make vaccinations compulsory, and introduce disciplinary sanctions for those who refuse to vaccinate their children. At the same time, the option to vaccinate children should be more open to parents, and they should be able to control the procedure and be aware of the minimization of risk for
State vaccine mandates for children entering schools and daycare facilities to be up to date or they are not allowed to attend for the safety of other children (billington). Since 2008, global immunization levels for essential childhood vaccines have remained constant around the 80% mark. Over 1.5 million children die annually from diseases that can be prevented by vaccines. One in five babies around the world are missing out on basic vaccines and may die from weak health systems and insufficient funding. UNICEF and its partners are working to change these numbers and ensure that all children are successfully protected with vaccines.
The effectiveness of vaccinations continues to be proven (Malone and Hinaman n.d.). For example, after development of the measles vaccine and the implementation of the vaccination program, the number of reported measles cases declined from 57,345 in 1977 to 2587 in 1984( CDC 2010 ). However, even though vaccinations have been proven safe and effective; there are still risks as well as the implication that not every person who is vaccinated will obtain immunity. That being said, serious damage from vaccination is a rare occurrence (Malone and Hinaman). A Glanz study (2013) from the Vaccin...
Each day researchers are finding out about vaccines and are realizing that there are a lot more risks than benefits. Dr Phillip F. Incao explains: “Today, far more children suffer from allergies and other chronic immune system disorders than from life-threatening infectious disease. It is neither reasonable nor prudent to persist in presuming that the benefits of any vaccination outweigh its risk” (qtd in Spaker). While infectious diseases are becoming uncommon there is no need for any person to get vaccinated. There have been many issues surrounding vaccinations all around the world.
First of all, let’s clear something up. Vaccines are definitely safe, they undergo prolonged and extensive testing from reputable scientists, doctors and the federal government. They are designed specifically for you and your family to keep you all safe from deadly diseases.
Illnesses are not something that a child wants to have, nor is it something that a parent wants to deal with. Vaccinating your child will prevent him/her from either developing an illness or obtaining the illness
Vaccines work. They have kept infants healthy and have saved millions of lives for more than 50 years. Most childhood vaccines are 90% to 99% effective in preventing disease so why would you keep such an advantage away from your child? “ Vaccines are made with a tiny amount of dead or weakened germs. They help the immune system learn how to protect itself against disease. Vaccines are a safe and effective way to keep your child from getting very sick from the real disease.” (healthycanadians.gc.ca).When the word vaccination comes to mind the first thing that should come to our minds is life saving, helpful, and beneficial. Unfortunately not all people would think positively when it comes to vaccinations, they think of the worst that could happen. I understand they want to know the cons to getting the vaccine for their infant, but information can show you that pros outweigh the cons. Vaccinations can not only protect an infant but it goes as far as saving their lives. Society has a strong influence on people 's decisions. In this case society and parental beliefs get in the way of infants well beings.
North American children are now the most vaccinated on earth. Children receive about thirty-three doses of ten vaccinations by the age of five years. Not only do children need a separate vaccine for most diseases (hepatitis B, polio, Hib, and chicken pox are single vaccines; DTaP and MMR are multiple) but they generally need more than one dose of each vaccine. Because of the many vaccines needed, vaccination is an extremely controversial topic in the United States Today. Whatever side of the aisle you may fall with regard to your opinion about vaccination, one thing is for certain: the choice to vaccinate or not is a decision that has the potential to greatly impact the health of you and most importantly, your children for the rest of their lives.
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.
America looks at disease as a war. Illness is the enemy, vaccinations are the weapons, and the unfortunate cost is that some innocent civilians may lose their lives. A vaccine is a substance used to provide immunity against a disease. In some cases, vaccines have done more harm than good. Ignoring this fact, vaccines are mandatory in every state, and some states are trying to take away the parent’s right to deny them. The disadvantages, diseases, and disabilities caused by vaccines justify the parent’s right to decide against the risk of vaccination.
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.
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. Childhood vaccines protect children from a variety of serious or possibly fatal diseases, including diphtheria, measles, meningitis, polio, tetanus, and whooping cough (Clinic Staff). By vaccinating children against diseases, it helps children grow into strong, healthy adults. Today, children in the United States continuously get vaccines that protect them from more than a dozen diseases (Childhood Immunization).
Vaccinations should be mandatory because they help keep our children, communities and future generations safe; they also provide the possibility of a world without Human Papillomavirus, whooping cough and other dangerous diseases. Vaccinations help keep our children safe from measles and 13 other different diseases. It is commonly accompanied by a painful itchy rash and fever. At one point in history, measles was a very common disease.
At the present time there does not appear to be enough sufficient evidence to recommend that children not be vaccinated. The benefits of having a child vaccinated clearly outweigh any possible harm that the vaccinations might be causing. Children should continue to be vaccinated according to the schedule that has been set down by the CDC, so that everyone can be protected.
Not only are we not allowing our body to build an immunity on it’s own, 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. The number of vaccinations a child receives, in the first six years of his/her life, has increased dramatically. According to “Vaccine Controversies” by Kathy Koch, “Today, an American child receives up to 39 doses of 12 different vaccines, most given during the first two years of life. And, unlike in previous decades, today’s youngsters are given multiple inoculations on the same day” (643).
“Childhood vaccines are one of the great triumphs of modern medicine. Indeed, parents whose children are vaccinated no longer have to worry about their child's death or disability from whooping cough, polio, diphtheria, hepatitis, or a host of other infections.” (Ezekiel J. Emanuel, 1). Vaccines helped humanity for many years in eliminating illnesses that disfigured, disabled and a lot of times took lives away. Children who do not get vaccinated not only risk themselves by being an easy target for diseases they also, harm everyone around them. In the end, today's children are the fuel of the future. Every parent should think carefully before taking any chance that may harm the coming generation.