Anti Vaccination Debate

A person’s health can be one of the most important aspects in their life. When thinking about what can help one to remain healthy, vaccinations come to mind. Vaccinations, to many people, are a necessity to remain healthy. I know when I was younger I hated to get a shot, but when I think about it today I am glad my parents made me get them. My mother was a nurse, so she knew the importance of vaccinations. Unfortunately, in todays’ society some parents think vaccinations can be more harmful then helpful, therefore refusing to vaccinate their children. The articles “How Vaccines Protect Us All” by Harrison Wein and “Beliefs About Childhood Vaccinations is the United States: Political Ideology, False Consensus, and the Illusion of Uniqueness” by Mitchell Rabinowitz, Lauren Latella, Chadly Stern, and John Jost both talk about vaccinations as the main point. While both of the articles talk about the importance of vaccinations and how they should be required, the first article by Harrison Wein talks more about how vaccinations protect the community and the second article by Rabinowitz et al. talks about how parents have the control of their children’s vaccinations. However, both articles prove readers to believe vaccinations can help keep children safe and healthy.

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

Conflicting reports about the safety of vaccinations is causing confusion and fear among parents. There has been tremendous hesitation in choosing whether or not to vaccinate children. The Federal Government has remedied this hesitation by creating a law. New legislation, effective at the start of the 2016 school year, requires parents to vaccinate their children in order to attend public or private schools. Parents that rely on school or day care systems to care for their child care while they work, are left without a choice. If these parents wanted to postponed or possibly not vaccinate, it is no longer of consequence, they are now obligated to take the leap. This law should be repealed until further research is done and more effective versions are created. Doctors need to understand why some children have adverse reactions and how to test for possible predispositions before vaccines become mandatory. Vaccinations should be an option for prevention, with parents in full awareness of the risks.

Parents should have the exclusive authority to make medical decisions on behalf of their minor children. Informed parents have the responsibility to refuse or discontinue treatments, even those that may be life-sustaining. This right extends to opting-out of vaccinations when in the best interests of the child. Although, these rights are being challenged. In addition, those parents choosing to opt-out of the vaccination program for their children are facing sanctions, ridicule as well as ostracized. A published article in, Pediatrics, confirm what other studies have suggested: “Anti-vaccine sentiment in the United States appears strongest among educated, wealthier white families. All 50 states have legislation requiring specified vaccines for students. Although exemptions vary from state to state, all school immunization laws grant exemptions to children for medical reasons.”

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

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.

“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.

"In the United States, the childhood immunization schedule recommends that children receive approximately 15 vaccinations by 19 months of age, and it specifies ages for administration of each vaccination dose" (Luman, Barker, McCauley, & Drews-Botsch, 2005, p. 1367). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a vaccine is "a product that produces immunity therefore protecting the body from the disease" (Vaccines and Immunizations, 2015). Currently, there are many individuals advocating for and opposing the effects of the administration of vaccinations and immunizations in the United States. There are both legal and ethical issues surrounding the controversy, which include both deliberate and exogenous reasons not to vaccinate, and the mandatory nature that is required by many schooling districts and places of employment. Within this paper, I will discuss some legal implications surrounding vaccination, ethical debates that are current in the topic, as well as my point of view regarding immunizations and vaccinations.

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.

originate from a medical professionals mishandling of a study. This impacts the reputation of the whole medical community. Discovering

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.

Millions of lives have been saved thanks to a global effort to vaccinate for deadly diseases. Peter Yeo reports “Immunizations have saved more children than any other medical intervention in the last 50 years” (Reforming the U.N. 118). Yet, a new trend for parents is opting out of vaccinating their children for personal beliefs or religious exemptions. Although, the majority of Americans believe vaccines protect children, and conclusive evidence has proven vaccines can prevent the spread of deadly diseases. Still, a few parents believe vaccinating children is not essential for their health, additionally, they believe an increase in mandatory vaccines has insufficient scientific research to prevent serious medical side effects.

Ever since the rise of religion, certain practices have been marked as foreign and have also been avoided by people. The field of medicine is one of such practices that has been embroiled in various religious disagreements since its conception. Even today many of the disagreements still remain in our societies and has given rise to many campaigns like Anti-Vaccinations. The articles given were also in response to similar kinds of campaigns/beliefs. In the articles there are many views regarding how the people and government should consider these beliefs and what are its effects on the younger generation. One of the author Sharon Slaton Howell says in her article “I feel strongly that Christian Scientists who are committed to following in Christ Jesus' steps of relying on God's power alone for healing, should be allowed exemption from standard health care practices for themselves and their children.” Furthermore, another author who focuses on other aspect of these beliefs, Richard W. Garnett states, “There are relatively few religious objectors to vaccinations, for instance, so they can probably be accommodated because narrow religious exemptions (as opposed to unjustifiably broad ones ‘that cover philosophical and personal objections) do not result in dangerous numbers of

Immunizations prevent millions of deaths every year around the world. They are one of the most successful public health interventions and an additional 1.5 million deaths could be avoided if global coverage improves (“10 Facts on Immunization”). Vaccines have been around since before the 1800s and they have been helping us fight against diseases for over 200 years. They have taken fatal diseases, like smallpox, and completely wiped them out. However, there are many people that are still against vaccines and would never consider vaccinating themselves or their kids. They think that the ingredients are dangerous and that the possible side effects are worse than the disease itself. The thing they don’t realize is that their decision to not vaccinate their child is affecting everyone who will be around them. Having a child at school who is not vaccinated will put all the other children who did get their vaccinations at risk and that is not fair to them. It is understandable that some people might not want the government interfering with their medical decisions, but the government is doing it for a reason. They want to keep everyone safe and healthy and they want to stop major outbreaks of preventable diseases from ever happening again. All children should be required to get vaccinations and continue to get them throughout their life in order to prevent future outbreaks of diseases and protect everyone that will be around them.

I have been reading disturbing reports that a growing segment of our society is deciding to refuse vaccinations and immunizations for their children. These children, when allowed to co-mingle with other children potentially come into contact with children who are immune-compromised due to immuno-suppressant therapy, cancer, chemotherapy, or immunodeficiency disease, not to mention newborns, who have not yet been immunized against dangerous communicable diseases. As a society, we must stand up to those who would threaten the public health with decisions which may well take us back to an age of high child mortality--a public health disaster. Failing to immunize your child enables them to spread preventable communicable diseases to