Colorado Springs Vaccination Case Study

Every year, tens of thousands Americans die from the seasonal flu alone. This alarming statistic is what led the United States government to urge the country to vaccinate themselves, as well as their children every November, when the flu season is fast approaching. Though countless Americans do follow the government’s plea, many others insist that these vaccines distributed every year (as well as other year-long vaccines) contain an abnormally high amount of thimerosal, (a mercury-based chemical in vaccines designed to prevent the growth of bacteria) which could eventually lead to autism. This generation of fear is what has led many concerned parents to refuse to vaccinate their children, who seem to be the most vulnerable to this disease.

Many infectious diseases that once quickly spread and easily killed have been controlled or eradicated due to vaccinations. The efficacy of vaccines in reducing morbidity and mortality, particularly in children, is undeniable. Per the World Health Organization, childhood vaccinations prevent approximately 2-3 million deaths per year worldwide (WHO, 2016). In the United States, the value of immunizations is clearly displayed by comparing pre-vaccine era morbidity/mortality rates to post-vaccine era in regards to vaccine-preventable diseases. For example, prior to the diphtheria vaccine in the 1920’s, 206,000 people annually contracted the disease resulting in 15,520 deaths (History of Vaccines, 2009). However, between 2004 and 2014, only

The relevant theory of why parents are not vaccinating their children would be cognitive dissonance. The parents choose not to vaccinate their children due to other cases that may or may not have been linked to autism. Once the immunization has been given, it doesn’t mean that the child is unable to get it. The disease could be dormant and the immune system hasn’t picked up on it. You can still possibly contract anything contagious even with the shot, so why expose a child with a fragile immune system to massive dose of chemicals.

California’s state legislature is currently working to pass a bill that will require school age children to get vaccinated regardless of religious or personal beliefs. SB 277 as the bill as come to be called was authored by Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) and Senator Richard Pan (D-Sacramento). SB 277 has garnered a lot of attention from people who believe requiring vaccinations violates the rights of the people involved. Senator Bob Huff is one such person who opposed the bill. Senator Huff stated that even though he and his family get vaccinations, requiring others to do so infringes on their rights. If the bill passes, California will be just the third state to pass a law mandating vaccines in school age children. Religious and personal

The HAPI organization is fueling their mission on their fears about vaccinations. Dawn Winkler the executive director of the HAPI believed her infant died from mercury poisoning after receiving her vaccines. Mercury poisoning was never confirmed and medical professionals labeled the cause of death to be SIDS, also known as Sudden infant death syndrome. They use myths and make them frightening. The group’s main concern on vaccinations are the amounts of mercury. On the organizations website they pressure parents into choosing whether to vaccinate their children using the words “the most important decisions you will ever make for your child.” On a separate section of the website they say vaccines are supposed to be mercury free, which isn’t true. The reason why vaccines contain mercury and that is to kill any bacteria. They describe mercury as toxic in the tiniest amounts and never mention the fact that it has never shown to have harmful effects.

Many organizations have reported quanitative research on the amount of lives saved by childhood vaccinations. For example, American Academy of Pediatrics states, "Most childhood vaccines are 90%-99% effective in preventing disease." United Nations Foundation partner organization says, “Vaccines save 2.5 million children from preventable diseases every year.” The CDC claims, “An estimated amount of 732,000 American children were saved from death and 322 million cases of childhood illnesses were prevented between 1994 and 2014 due to vaccination.” In addition, while Mercury, Aluminum, and Formaldehyde are generally harmful to bodies when they are used in the proper dosage they can help prevent life- threatening or altering disease. Not only when a parent vaccinates their own child is it beneficial to them but also to the other children might come into contact with making school a safer and cleaner place to learn. Another great aspect to vaccinating children to preventing future illness which would require the child to miss school and a parent or care taker to miss work. Along with that when a child is sick that usually means a doctors visit which parents do not like to pay for and children hate going. One quick shot however, could cure all the future

I think Dallas is not vaccinated because there is a lot of evidence that leads to this theory. First of all, Dallas is an ultimate. He is intelligent enough to prevent the vaccination from happening to him. If this was not the case, he would've been vaccinated a long time ago. Additionally, if Dallas was vaccinated, he would've informed the teachers immediately about Max’s behavior. However since he is not vaccinated, he has not done so, proving that he has not been vaccinated. In my opinion, I think Dallas is pretending to be

He believed that vaccines for mumps, measles, and rubella or MMR are unsafe due to the fact that all these vaccines have thimerosal. Thimerosal prevents contamination and is also a preservative. Thimerosal contains mercury which is harmful for the brain. He claimed, “Government health agencies colluded with Big Pharma to hide the risks of thimerosal from the public. . . . A chilling case study of institutional arrogance, power, and greed” (qtd. in Vaccination Nation, 2012). He concluded that children were poisoned by the pharmaceutical industry. This idea led people to believe vaccines cause autism, which is another danger. The rubella or MMR vaccine contains live microorganisms. According to one article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, written by Bridget Kuahn, “The MMR vaccine can cause febrile seizures and this vaccine can cause inflammation in some individuals with severe immune deficiencies” (2014). This statement proves that vaccines have effects in the brain, which is another reason society believes vaccines can cause autism. Another example of adverse side effects from vaccines is the polio vaccine. The polio disease can trigger the disease in the body. The polio vaccine has “inactivated” polio microorganisms, and can trigger an infection. In the article, Vaccines: The Real Issues in Vaccine Safety, written by Roberta Kwok, a writer. She talks about a father, John, who vaccinated his son. She states, “David,

Reading about the consequences of vaccinations in the literature made me confused. Both sides of immunizing and not, had positive, compelling points. I decided to interview one of my former classmates Dr. John Burns. He is a doctorate of chiropractic and father of ten children. He and his wife decided not vaccinate the majority of their children. During the interview I asked him what his fear was about vaccination. He answered, “Mohammad, most of my fear is from personal experience. In my life, I have witnessed so many of my family members and my patients who had perfectly fine children until fifteen months. After vaccinations, the same child started developing neurological problems; most often autism.” I further asked, “Do you think preservatives such as thimerosal in the vaccines are causing the neurological damage?” He responded “Although I think that thimerosal-containing vaccines play a major role in causing neurological damage, the numbers of vaccines and the frequent

On the contrary, there are beliefs vaccines are not beneficial; they cause harm to the individual. There are parents who choose not to vaccinate their children due to specific beliefs. There are also some families who believe harmful diseases are not around in the United States. Parents choose not to vaccinate against diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, and polio as a result of the decreased cases of these diseases. Also, when talking about vaccinations, a popular controversy is vaccines causing autism in younger children. In an article written by Jennifer Scott, she states, “These moments in which parents suddenly connect the dots between their children’s vaccines and

Are the ingredients in vaccines safe for your child? Shane Ellison states that they are not, saying “Formaldehyde is just one of the many chemicals found in vaccines. And according to the FDA ‘excessive exposure to formaldehyde may cause cancer,’” [22]. Other ingredients in vaccines that tend to put people off are [15] mercury, an element that is poisonous to the nervous system and can be toxic at levels above 0.32 microgram a day for newborn babies, and aluminum which in excess can cause neurological harm. Some vaccines also contain chicken egg protein which, for children who are allergic to egg can be potentially harmful. Such chemicals can be cause for concern for parents but are not as dangerous as they first appear.

This topic is extremely significant to my audience because a growing number of parents do not vaccinate their children due to fear of side effects. Parents today have lost confidence in in the vaccination industry as a consequence of sensationalism brought about by false evidence published and the celebrities that latched onto that claim. Sadly, some people have taken to considering the strong opinions and may not research vaccinations before making decisions

When children who have been vaccinated do contract a disease, despite being vaccinated against it, they usually have milder symptoms with less serious complications than an un-vaccinated child that gets the same disease. It is true that some children who receive vaccinations may still become ill when exposed to other disease-ridden children. Research shows that 70-90% of the entire population must be vaccinated to attain “herd immunity”, “the resistance of a group to attack by a disease to which a large proportion of the members are immune.” (Farlex, 2012) When herd immunity is accomplished the spread of the disease can be averted throughout. If all parents were to take proper responsibilities and keep their children’s immunizations up-to-date, herd immunity would be achieved against all 16 of the major life threatening diseases.

Throughout history, it has been shown that vaccines make a significant impact on the health of our communities and “administration of these vaccines led to dramatic reduction in the number of cases of, as well as deaths from smallpox, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, measles, mumps and preventable diseases” (Jacobson, 2012, p.36). Generally, those involved in campaigns for and research in these preventable diseases attribute vaccines for children as the main contributing factor to the overall decline in diseases such as measles, mumps, smallpox and pertussis (Jacobson, 2012). In the public health setting, there are many issues that threaten the health and safety of the public, not just in the local community but the nation and world-wide. One such issue, surfacing in public health, is the issue of vaccinations; those who choose to vaccinate, those who choose not to vaccinate and those who do not

Thesis Statement: Recently, the United States has seen a resurgence of many different diseases that we haven 't seen in decades. Much of this problem is caused by failure to get vaccinations, and a key step to solving the issue is education.