Vaccine Argumentative Essay

Even in the present high-tech age of medicine, there is an ever growing population of outspoken objectors to the modern practice of routine childhood vaccinations. Many believe that vaccines are not safe because they are not natural, or that they cause autism and feel that the risk of negative side effects are not worth the benefit of protection against the infectious diseases themselves. Others just do not want to be told what they can and cannot do in regard to their own children’s health. Although the concerns may be well meaning, the reality is that the advent of vaccines has remarkably changed the landscape of disease in the United States for the better. The growing reluctance and refusal of some parents to immunize their children has resulted in the increased incidence of measles and other serious and often fatal diseases in
Scientists are using recombinant DNA and monoclonal antibodies and even the targets themselves are ever changing as some scientists are looking at diseases that are not infectious such as allergies and even addiction (The College of Physicians of Philadelphia). With the nearly eradicated serious diseases gone, the public does not hear about or remember the consequences of theses infections, and therefore is not aware of how deadly and dreadful they can be. No one really remembers the frightening sound of a child with whooping cough or the stories of birth defects from exposure to rubella. Pictures of children in braces as a result of polio are merely black and white photos found in old textbooks and albums. People confined to an “iron lung” and coughing up blood in their handkerchief is only seen in the old westerns on television. This causes parents to be less compelled to be vigilant about getting their children 's or even their own immunizations as is recommended by the healthcare community. The out-of-sight, out-of-mind