Anti Vaccination Persuasive Speech

Vaccinations have gone through opposition and critics, but for the most part legislation has been slow, but treated vaccination fairly. To this day vaccination still faces many of the challenges that it faced in the early nineteenth century. The reasons have gone from personal freedom issues and just the overall effectiveness of mass immunization. The courts in the nineteenth century typically supported the enactment of mandatory vaccination programs. Most importantly for the future of mandatory vaccination policy, one important Supreme Court decision in the early part of the twentieth century acknowledged the power of state governments to mandate vaccination.

Despite significant progress in the fight against preventable disease, millions still die needlessly each year. According to UNICEF, originally known as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, a vaccine preventable disease is responsible for 2 million fatal infections worldwide each year. About 75% of these deaths occur in children under five years of age. (N) In more vivid terms, UNICEF notes that vaccine-preventable diseases kill a child every 20 seconds. (D) Due to high rates of childhood vaccination, the United States has experienced a dramatic reduction in such deaths. A comparison of the years 1950 and 2010 clearly illustrates the benefits of vaccinations. During this 60-year period, deaths from diphtheria reduced from 410 to 0, tetanus from 336 to 3, pertussis from 1,118 to 26, and polio from 1,904 to 0. Measles deaths dropped from 468 in 1950 to 0 in 2008, the last year a United States death rate was recorded. It’s not surprising that vaccinations have been touted as one of the top ten health achievements of the 20th century by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Childhood vaccinations have not been a topic of controversy until recent times. Due to the recent outbreaks of diseases that were thought to be eliminated, people are now investigating vaccinations. State representatives and Congressional people have even gotten on the bandwagon to emphasize the importance of vaccinations. Many states already require children to be vaccinated before entering school, but states allow religious, medical, or personal exemptions. Getting rid of these exemptions would be beneficial to not only parents and children, but also to members of society. Having children vaccinated at a young age when the immune system can respond correctly to vaccines will benefit the future health of children. Children are more at danger at a younger age to catch infectious diseases. Vaccines are a safe way to prevent the child from getting sick. “Proponents say that vaccination is safe and one of the greatest health developments of the 20th century”

Vaccines change over time as science makes advancements and diseases processes evolve and emerge. Around 400 BC, Hippocrates recognized the now preventable diseases, such as diphtheria and mumps (Immunization Act Coalition, 2015). The first effort to immunize dates back to the 1100’s when children were inoculated with scabs from individuals who recently had small pox, with a technique coined as variolation. Then in 1796, Edward Jenner successfully created the first small pox vaccine (Immunization Act Coalition, 2015).

Opposition to vaccinations has been around as long as the vaccinations themselves, as early as the 1800s (History of Vaccines). Major anti-vaccination movements began around 1815 during the smallpox epidemic in England (History of Vaccines). Doctor Edward Jenner conducted an experiment where he tested the vaccine first on cows, and later proved it effective on children (History of Vaccines). Jenner’s experiment consisted of taking a lymph from a cowpox blister and inserting it into the blood stream of the patient (History of Vaccines). News

Vaccinations are safe and they work. There are many parents who choose for their own reasons to ignore Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations to vaccinate and exercise their right to not do so. They run the risk of having their child suffer or even possibly die when they opt-out to having their child vaccinated. Today in the United States, outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease are often traced to susceptible children whose parents have claimed an exemption from school or child care immunization regulations (CDC, 2014).

Vaccination programs are among the most cost effective and widely used public health interventions and have helped to control the spread of epidemic diseases, including smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, and polio.1 Each state has school vaccination laws which require children of appropriate age to be vaccinated for several communicable diseases. 2. Subject to exceptions, including individual medical,3 religious,4 and philosophical 5 objections, modern state school vaccination laws mandate that children be vaccinated prior to being allowed to attend public or private schools. Failure to vaccinate children can result in children being denied from attending school, civil fines and criminal penalties (although rarely employed)6 against their parents or guardians, and other measures(e.g., the closure of a school).Advocates argue that childhood vaccinations ensure a safe environment for children who attend public schools. Supporters of childhood vaccinations believe that vaccines help prevent the following illnesses: whooping cough, diphtheria, and rubella. People who support childhood vaccinations believe that people that are against vaccinations have misguided beliefs. People who oppose childhood vaccinations argue that children should not be vaccinated due to their ability to naturally heal themselves. Opponents also believe that childhood vaccinations cause various side effects like seizures or even death. People who oppose vaccinations conclude that research

Because of advancements in medicine, vaccinations are becoming a widespread medium in the prevention of disease. They have provided the eradication and immunity to many deadly diseases such as smallpox, polio and rubella. Although there is no law that mandates the vaccination of children, they are necessary to prevent the infliction of disease and harm. By making the decision to vaccinate their children, a parent has the potential to save their lives.

Even though the vaccination was introduced, some people opposed the very idea. According to the Vaccination Act of 1853, parents are required to put vaccination on their children up to 3 months old, but it changed it to 14 years of age. The reason why they changed it is the fact that the citizens wanted the right for full control for their bodies and for their children’s bodies as well. Ever since the Anti Vaccination League and the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League came into response, there are numbers of journals that talk about the

Jenner. His experiments were extremely primal, however, and from that point on the vaccine production rate and quality rose exponentially. In 1809 the first United States law requiring vaccinations for smallpox was written after frequent outbreaks created great health and economic consequences.(Omer, 2011, 169-182). Before vaccines for children were created children died by the thousands from disease like in the 1920’s when diphtheria used to take on average 10,000 lives of children every year. The first vaccine as we have come to know them today emerged in 1914 with the first pertussis or whooping cough vaccine. This was followed by several Supreme Court decisions cementing a states right to create vaccination and school immunization laws regarding unvaccinated children and their ability to attend public and private schools. These decisions included the Jacobson v. Massachusetts decision of 1905 and a 1922 decision on a San Antonio, Texas case about a girl excluded from both public and private schools due to her lack of vaccination. Social call for change in the 1970’s called for the exclusion of unvaccinated children from schools to create quick improvement and controlled outbreak of a measles virus running rampant in the country. Thus after much legislative and social change on the subject of unvaccinated children’s exposure to

While the anti-vaccination movement appears to be a present issue, it has roots in 1866 England. Immediately following the formation of The Parliament of England Compulsory Vaccination Act, anti-smallpox propaganda spread. The argument against mandatory vaccination was it was a way, “to steal away our medical liberties one by one,” (Cawkwell). To have a more unified message, they formed the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League. In four years it had about 10,000 members (Cawkwell). Pamphlets and periodicals were published throughout Britain to illuminate the issue of mandatory vaccination.

First, in 1796, a doctor named Edward Jenner performed the very first vaccination. “Taking pus from a cowpox lesion on a milkmaid’s hand, Jenner inoculated an eight-year-old boy, James Phipps. Six weeks later Jenner variolated two sites on Phipps ' arm with smallpox, yet the boy was unaffected by this as well as subsequent exposures” (Minna & Markel, 2005)& (Cave, 2008). The first vaccination allowed people to recognize that it was beneficial for their health. It provided the base for the rest of the variations of vaccinations to come. Vaccinations began with the notion that it is rooted in the science of immunology. Throughout history, there have been many variations of this first vaccine for things such as small pox, mumps, malaria and guinea worm. (The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, n.d.)

The Center for Disease Control describes vaccines as the greatest development in public health since clean drinking water. For several decades, vaccines have saved countless lives and helped eradicate some fatal diseases. The push to do away with vaccines will not only endanger our youth, but our society as a whole. Vaccination is needed to maintain a healthy balance within our country. Vaccines provide the immunity that comes from a natural infection without the consequences of a natural infection. Vaccinations save an ever-growing amount of lives every year. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that 732,000 American children were saved from death and 322 million cases of childhood illnesses were prevented between 1994 and 2014 due to vaccination (“Vaccine ProCon”).

According to my research, in 1796 Dr. Edward Jenner developed a vaccine for smallpox disease however during this time only cows were infected. This vaccine came from the cowpox virus. In 1809, the state of Massachusetts became the first to mandate the smallpox vaccinations then in 1879 a group of Anti-Vaccination of America was formed and their belief is that no one should be forced to vaccination. They believed that the vaccine was spreading the disease instead of preventing it. In 1986

Vaccinations have been proven safe for consumer use time and time again, yet people are still wary or hesitant to have their children receive vaccinations. Often times, people who argue against vaccinations are undereducated or miseducated about the real advantages and dangers of vaccinations, and many times these concerns are due to widely spread misconceptions. However, these have been proven wrong by a plethora of reputable pharmaceutical companies. Proven by many , vaccinations prevent epidemics, save money for the nation, and protect the future.