Benefits And Risks Of Recommended Child Immunizations Essay

More than 10 million vaccines per year are given to children who are less than one-year-old, usually between 2 and 6 months of age. At this age, infants are at greater risk for certain So many infants have suffered a lot of problems from getting different injection because of their age (“VAERS Data”). Other parents, in general, would say all children should have their vaccines because neither one would want to catch any diseases that are spreading around. Most would say that all parents should make sure their children are vaccinated because a lot of children are dying of preventable diseases, and they cannot go to school, travel and it does not cause autism.

Protecting a child’s health is very important to parents! That is why they should vaccinate them as young children. All children should be required to have vaccinations in order to start school in every state. Each year, about 85% of the world’s youth receive vaccines that protect them against several diseases such as tuberculosis, pneumococcus, and many more. Even with great success and improvements with vaccinations, more than 3 million people die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases. An estimate of about 1.5 million of these deaths are in children less than five years old. Of the top ten reported cases of those deaths, several are infectious. (Global Immunizations: Worldwide Disease Incidence, 2017). However, some parents feel vaccines are not safe because they are convinced vaccines are the cause of autism. Nevertheless, Vaccinations are very much necessary. There are many benefits to vaccinating children early. Immunizations should be mandatory because they can save a child’s life, save families time and money, and eliminate diseases forever.

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? Parents with infants and young children have been tussling with this proverbial question for several decades now. With the advent of the internet and the World Wide Web, parents have been bombarded with a plethora of information about pros and cons of vaccines from all kinds of sources, some creditable, and some are not. To the non-scientific community, these conflicting information can create problems in the decision making process; thus, forcing parents to make the wrong choices and putting their offspring and others at risk. However, this article will attempt to address the importance of vaccinations, how vaccines work, why we should vaccinate, and why parents should not be afraid to vaccinate their offspring.

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”

Controversy concerning the risks of vaccinations will always exist. As is the nature of a preventative intervention, it is difficult to rationalize giving a completely healthy child an injection that is known to have varying degrees of sides affects5. Additionally, these injections are to provide immunity to children for diseases that have an extremely low risk of circulating within a population. Since these vaccines have been able to protect so many individuals from experiencing these dangerous infections, most parents do not even have personal experiences regarding the impact of these diseases. As such, many parents do not see the vaccine-preventable disease as a threat to their child. This often causes parents to not fully understand the risk their child has for contracting a disease and the subsequent danger of a vaccine-preventable disease infection verses the potential side effect of a vaccine which is normally only mild to moderate discomfort for their child15.

Parents are bombarded with information when it comes to their children and their children’s health and it happens the moment they are born. One main question they face off the bat is whether to immunize or not. For children ages 0-18, the CDC recommends vaccinations against 16 diseases, many of which could result in devastating illnesses and even death. Several injections coupled with several possibilities of severe reactions, pain, irritation, itching, ect. But through extensive, heavily monitored research and effectiveness, and evidence-based science illustrating the improvements and protection of the community it is clear that their benefits outweigh their risks. This paper will outline why the decision to immunize is one less

Being a parent is a never ending full time job. Constantly on the run, doing laundry, making food, and wiping snotty noses, you are faced with decisions to make for your child every day. One of those important decisions is whether or not to vaccinate your child. In today’s society this has become a tough choice to make as negative light has been casted upon vaccinations and their safety. False allegations of vaccines causing Autism have led parents from vaccinating their children, but research has proven that vaccinations are not the cause of Autism and parents should continue to vaccinate for the safety of their child as well as society.

Often debated, with strong convictions on each side, timely immunizations for children do more good then harm. Over the last few years, a phenomenon has come to our door steps. It used to be that all parents would immunize their children, without fail, because doctors told them to. In the past, the only non-immunized children were the children with health deficiencies. These children depended on the “herd” mentality. However, times are changing and parents are choosing to not immunize their children mainly based on these reasons: the possibility of them getting autism, parental lack of education about immunizations and lastly they believe that the illnesses that children are being immunized against are gone and immunizations are no longer needed.

Certainly, supporting the use of immunization at a young age for children is a practical strategy to maintain their health and wellness. Thanks to parents who choose to immunize their children on a voluntary basis, the public health is protected, and there is a reduction in the spread of infectious diseases across the Untied States. Jane Lemons reports, “Although the vast majority of Americans continue to vaccinate their children, studies have found that as many as 1 in 10 parents are delaying or forgoing some or all recommended vaccines for their children” (169).

Most people hear the word “measles” and think of pictures in their pediatrician’s office, or vague images of a disease their parents described after explaining why they had to get a shot. Most people do not think of Disneyland, December 2014, or 100 people in the western United States coming down with the disease in early 2015. After the outbreaks in 2015, vaccination became a huge national debate, with “anti-vaxxers” arguing that vaccines can cause autism, and are a personal choice. The outbreak of a vaccine preventable disease shows one thing, however: that vaccines should be mandatory, because they protect everyone through herd immunity, many diseases are preventable through vaccines, and the objections people cite on a day-to-day basis against vaccines have little to do with the actual life-saving and life-protecting value that they have.

The importance of vaccines for children has a large impact on healthcare and my future practice. Therefore knowing what programs are available is critical to increasing the vaccine rates. Over the decades, there have been devastating consequences resulting from preventable communicable diseases as well as programs and strategies to assist in increasing the immunization rates. This paper will explain and critique the program called “Vaccines For Children”. This paper will also include how I will adapt this program in my future pediatric practice.

The first major concern parents have when it comes to childhood vaccinations is that of the health and safety of their children. Some parents

In ignoring the recommendations from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) there has been increase in outbreaks, which can be linked to vaccine refusal (Phadke, Bednarczyk, Salmon, Omer, 2016). In Table 1. of the article Association Between Vaccine Refusal and Vaccine-Preventable Disease in the United States, it clearly demonstrates that more cases of measles were found with those who were unvaccinated against measles. From 2000 to 2015 there were a reported 1416 cases of measles and of those 804 were unvaccinated against measles.

On the current, medically approved, vaccination schedule, children receive up to twenty-six shots by age two. According to some anti-vaccination advocates, “A schedule this intense tends to ‘overwhelm’ a young child’s immune system, causing more damage than good to the child’s body.”3(p103) An alternative schedule attempts to spread these same vaccines over a period of several years to avoid damage to children’s immune systems. However, there is overwhelming evidence that it is the alternative schedule that does more harm than good. Using an alternative schedule can result in under immunization, leaving a child at a high risk of contracting and spreading vaccine-preventable diseases to the

Now, many once-forgotten diseases are reappearing. TIME Magazine reported that “In 2014, the U.S. experienced a major outbreak of measles that totaled 383 cases and was primarily spreading among an unvaccinated Amish community in Ohio.” (Measles Outbreak) The number of cases of these diseases is going up when it can be easily prevented. Worldwide, “Measles is one of the leading causes of death among young children even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available.” (World Health