Anti Vaccination Debate

In these blog post “Enough is Enough with Blaming ‘Anit-Vaxxers’” by Modern Alternative Health and “Enough is Never Enough with Blaming ‘Anit-Vaxxers’” by SciBabe, they each gave their opinions about vaccination choice and their reaction to the 2015 measles outbreak at Disneyland. While Scibabe is more on the offensive side and pointing out Modern Alternative Health’s flaws, Modern Alternative Health stays more on the defensive side in order to get her point across. Just one thing that both of these blogs post can agree on is that children are suffering one way or another, no doubt about it, the children are the first priority.

Recently an anti-vaccination movement has sparked a worldwide discussion about both the safety of vaccines and the responsibility of people to vaccinate. Recent outbreaks of preventable diseases have caused both fear and anger from people on both sides of the issue. These same outbreaks have also served to cause significant political tension between those against vaccines, who do not want their right to choose compromised, and many proponents of vaccines, who are calling for mandatory vaccinations.

A recent controversy has been, whether parents should or should not be permitted to opt their children out of required vaccinations. Parents should not be able to opt out of required vaccinations because they are beneficial and can cause serious risks if not taken. In “Refusing Vaccinations Puts Others At Risk”, Ronald Bailey remarks that parents are putting others at risk by not vaccinating their children. In the article “The Return of Measles”, Seth Mnookin stated as well, that by opting out of vaccinations, others can be put in jeopardy. Although there is also another side of this controversy with people who believe parents have a right to opt their children out of vaccinations. In an excerpt from “Vaccinations and Free Will”. Jeffrey A. Singer implies that people cannot be forced to have their child receive a vaccination. Finally, in “The Science is Not Settled”, Sandy Reider claims that vaccinations cause further harm than good. While Reider and Singer claim that parents should be able to opt out, it is clear that parents should not be able to opt out because it places others around them in danger.

The choice to vaccinate a child holds much debate in society today. As a person that lives in America, you may feel it is your right to be able to choose what medical needs and necessities you would want for your child or yourself. “The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends getting 29 doses of 9 vaccines (plus a yearly flu shot after six months old) for kids aged 0 to six. No US federal laws mandate vaccination, but all 50 states require certain vaccinations for children entering public schools. Even though vaccines are considered extremely safe there are cases where in some people have a type of allergic reaction. Most states offer medical and religious exemptions; and some states allow philosophical exemptions” (Wadman, 2017). This point calls for a lot of debate, both in the scholarly world and among average citizens. Some people claim that such medical conditions, such as autism are the result of over vaccinating or dosing at early ages of development. Reasons on the topic vary, and concerns can end up in long legal disputes. Such disputes have raised the question of vaccine safety, prevention, and government intervention.

“As healthy as my lifestyle seemed, I contracted measles, mumps, rubella, a type of viral meningitis, scarlatina, whooping cough, yearly tonsillitis, and chickenpox, some of which are vaccine preventable” (Parker 1). This quote by vaccine advocate Amy Parker, a woman who was not vaccinated as a child, shows just a glimpse into the life of an unvaccinated individual. Parents who do not vaccinate their children claim many different reasons for their decision. Three of the most popular reasons are: religious grounds, health problems as a result from vaccines, and the belief that the illnesses are rare. Each of these reasons can be proven as nonessential in the anti-vaccine argument.

When one is given a vaccine, he or she is being injected with a killed microbe to train his or her immune system to be able to fight it off, in hopes to prevent a future disease. Whether or not to vaccinate one’s child has been a controversy through the years, because some vaccines have had unplanned side effects. These unplanned side effects have caused parents to be skeptical on whether or not to vaccinate their child, despite getting vaccines can possibly prevent a fatal disease. Many questions have risen from this practice of vaccination, in which Dr. William C. Douglass attempts to answer in his article, “How To Win the Vaccine Argument Every Single Time”. Although William C. Douglass provides decent arguments

This paper was written for MLS 500: Graduate Research and Writing taught by Dr. Kyla Hammond

These articles have spurred a controversy about vaccinations and have discouraged parents from them. Reluctance to vaccinate has increased over the past years and has caused parents to neglect the fact that they need to vaccinate their kids. Under-immunization has caused the resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases like polio and measles to breakout in schools. Concern for recent outbreaks has lead me to pose the question: Should it be mandatory to vaccinate your kids?

Vaccinations have had a huge influence on enhancing the health of kids across the country, yet every year, regardless of the health department’s efforts, the number of parents opting out of vaccinating their children continually rises. This essay explores various articles, journals and facts about vaccinations in an attempt to convince the audience that this is a serious enough issue that warrants their immediate attention. The vaccination prevents dangerous and sometimes deadly diseases. One of the most effective ways for a parent to protect their child is to have them immunized. The vaccination does not only protect the individual child but also aides in the protection of the community in which the child lives. Opponents of vaccinations,

key arguments that anti-vaccination supporters used in the past and how they have evolved throughout time. One of the roots of the anti-vaccination movement was the Bible, which was used by one of the founding fathers of the anti-vaccination movement to justify the dangers of vaccines (Kaufman 464). This shows that anti-vaccination supporters viewed the Bible as the ultimate source of knowledge that could rival scientific research. Although the anti vaccination has changed throughout the years and has new leadership, that does not mean its ideas have shifted. The roots of a movement often stay even if the ideas do change. As previously mentioned, the Bible and religion is a root and will likely never leave the anti-vaccination movement. This

Between 1924 and 2013, vaccinations prevented 103 million cases of polio, measles, rubella, mumps, hepatitis A, diphtheria, and pertussis (Bailey). Vaccinating is “the process by which pathogenic cells are injected into a healthy person in an attempt to cause the body to develop antibodies to a particular virus or bacterium—successful creation of antibodies is referred to as immunity to the disease caused by the particular pathogen” (Introduction to Should Vaccinations be Mandatory). Popular conflicts regarding vaccination include the worry that this form of immunization isn’t natural, the idea that vaccination schedule for children in the U.S. takes away parents’ rights to make decisions for their children, and the concern that vaccinations aren’t safe for all children. Most doctors and scientists advocate for vaccinations in the name of herd immunity, protection against foreign diseases and prevention against pockets of disease outbreaks. Vaccinations should be mandatory for all children in the United States for who they are deemed safe and effective.

Ever since the invention of the first smallpox vaccine more than two centuries ago, there has been plenty of controversy over the morality, ethics, effectiveness, and safety of vaccination and immunization. It has recently been argued whether laws should be introduced that render some or all vaccines obligatory for all children (Singer). Parents, health care specialists, nurses, teachers and children all have an important stake in this issue. Parents argue that it is they who should have the ultimate decision-making right on whether or not to vaccinate their children. Nurses and health care officials oppose that view on the grounds that by making vaccination rates in children incomplete, we expose all children to contracting the vaccine-preventable diseases. If this is a risk some parents are willing to take, but others face unwillingly, there is obviously a propitious platform for debate. It is in fact irresponsible and a violation of good citizen when parents oppose vaccinating their children. It is important to unify certain rules related to vaccination and not make it the prerogative of a particular public or private school to decide whether or not to accept an unvaccinated child. It would only be right to end all debate by passing a binding country-wide law to make certain vaccines (against

Vaccinations are promoted to be the best thing since sliced bread. People today know them as a cure to help eliminate childhood diseases and protect us from possible pandemics. So hypothetically what is the major issue with vaccines? Vaccinations contain ingredients used by funeral directors to preserve bodies (Scheibner p. 255). Children in the United States receive more vaccines and antibiotics than any other children around the globe (O’ Shea p. 54).Also, reports have shown that American children are becoming more and more sick. Finally, vaccinations are a multibillion dollar per year business, making 33.8 billion in 2012 alone (“’Vaccines Market Will Reach 33.8 Billion dollars in 2012’ Visiongain Report Predict.”). Anything involving that much money should be looked at and examined skeptically because is it about receiving a paycheck or the patient’s health? Government has threatened to block admission to schools if the vaccinations are not complete. As well as, Pediatricians are now refusing to see children not fully vaccinated due to vaccination tracking. Parents are responsible for guiding and protecting their children to adulthood and parents should have the right to choose what vaccinations their children should get, at which point in their life or if they should get any.

As a parent, there are countless tough decisions to make. Parents are responsible for their child’s well-being, which is intense pressure. They are obligated to decide what they think is in the best interest of their own child. There is also pressure from the media, and other parents, on how people should raise their children and what decisions are actually in the child’s best interest. One of the tough decisions that parents must determine is whether to have their child vaccinated or not. There is excessive disagreement about whether vaccinating children is beneficial or detrimental. There are also restrictions put in place by the government that encourage vaccines, such as children must have vaccinations to attend public school. However,

Living in an environment where we are prone to many viruses, it’s very important that one take the proper precautions or considerations to control the risk of getting affected. However, when utilizing the ability of not becoming infected, one may question the fact weather there’s an actual effective form of prevention or not. To clarify the uncertainty, over many years one of the most strategic methods that have been used for the control and preventions of viruses are vaccinations. A vaccination takes advantage of one’s body natural ability to primarily learn how to eliminate almost any disease causing germ or microbe that affects it. Therefore vaccinations are considered one of the most effective ways to prevent severe outcomes initiated by viruses.