Controversy Of Vaccination Research Paper

Vaccination was first introduced globally for small pox and later on extended to other communicable diseases which are now known as vaccine preventable disease. Vaccination is beneficial both for individuals and community. This bring us to the ethical dilemma - Vaccination of a healthy child with the intention of protecting both the individual child and the community at the same time exposing the child to the theoretical risk of exposure to disease products whether live, attenuated or killed. There was a time when people never questioned the government or their physicians. Now because of more public awareness and accessibility to medical information, they are questioning the safety aspects of vaccines.

Vaccination protects the spread of diseases around us. Getting vaccinated doesn’t only mean helping yourself, it means helping other people around you too. “The U.S. has seen 118 cases as of mid-May, compared with the 56 cases a year from 2001-2008” (Ropeik). This is important because it’s saying that the rate of vaccination is decreasing, which disease will be increasing. We shouldn’t let this continue because diseases would be spreading faster than ever. We should be alarmed and need to take action for our future and get vaccinated now. Getting vaccinated means protecting ourselves and our community. That’s the reason why vaccine were there in the first place, to

Parents face many different decisions when raising a child; some decisions are trivial, and others can be controversial. Whether or not to vaccinate a child is one of the most controversial choices. So controversial, in fact, that there is a political conversation of making immunizations a requirement. Many people support the movement of making vaccinations mandatory. Proponents argue that vaccines save lives, vaccine-preventable diseases have not been eradicated, and vaccines protect herd immunity. Many people also disagree with the possibility of required vaccinations. Opponents argue that vaccines cause harm, immunity by vaccinations is inferior to natural immunity, and government policies should not dictate personal medical choices.

As Ezekiel Emanuel, an American oncologist said, “Childhood vaccines are one of the great triumphs of modern medicine. Indeed, parents whose children are vaccinated no longer have to worry about their child’s death or disability from whooping cough, polio, diphtheria, hepatitis, or a host of other infections.” For millions of years diseases have plagued entire populations, and in the late 1700s, Edward Jenner invented the smallpox vaccination which brought about a new era of disease prevention. Vaccinations should be enforced because they save lives, rarely cause reactions, and have eliminated diseases.

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.

Looking at the childhood vaccination controversy gives one an in-depth view into one of the more obvious conflict between the society and the vaccine manufacturers. The controversy is whether the government can require parents to vaccinate their children. Many families do not wish to do so based on religious and other reasons. Some believe the risk of catastrophic side effects is too high. Several childhood diseases have been nearly eradicated in the United States because of the required immunizations such as polio, whooping cough, diphtheria, etc. Some mild side effects include fever and local inflammation at the site of the injection. Some children can have severe reactions, which include seizures, autistic type reactions, and death. Parents

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

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

The means of dealing with infectious diseases that endanger individual and public health have evolved over the years. In 1789, however, the most protective technology used to prevent epidemics was introduced by physician Edward Jenner; vaccination. Vaccine efficiency continues to develop and become more advanced, producing immunity to infectious diseases from 90 to 100 percent of the time today. Because of inoculation, millions of people worldwide are immunized from fatal epidemics. However, because of unsubstantiated fears, many parents have been withholding vaccines from their children. Despite this, parents should not have the right to withhold vaccines from their children for philosophical reasons. Vaccines are the best way to prevent disease, vaccine exemptions endanger individual and public health, and without widespread inoculation, controlled diseases will rebound.

Daily we make decisions that impact our overall health and safety. We brush our teeth, we eat organic, go to the gym, wear our seat belts, and use sidewalks. Doesn’t it make sense that we’re also pro-vaccination? There are a multitude of benefits that come with immunizations. Vaccinating protects you, the people you care about, and future generations.

I, like citizen three, am undecided on government imposed vaccination. I don't personally agree with citizen I, point of view; but I do agree that people who do not get vaccinated are putting other people in danger. The same goes with citizen II, as a person who strongly believes in freedom of will, I can see why she opposes this issue. But at what price? At the price of others health? I think with an issue like this, it would be extremely selfish to oppose the vaccination.

Immunizations and vaccines have been around since the 1800s (Historic Dates). The idea of immunizing the population from deadly and unpleasant diseases is not a new idea. Yet many Americans, and people all around the world are beginning to question the effects of these vaccines, mainly on children and infants. It has been in more recent years that doctors have been recommending for children to start receiving vaccines as soon as they are born. The most common misconceptions of vaccines are that they cause autism, or that they cause the person being immunized to be a carrier of the disease. This causes a lot of new parents to rethink and hesitate to get their children vaccinated. However, the effects

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.

“Prevention is better than cure.” This common statement could not relate any better than it does with the controversy surrounding the morality, effectiveness, and safety of childhood immunizations. The major argument is whether or not laws should be established to declare vaccination mandatory for all children. “The US food and Drug administration (FDA) regulates all vaccines to ensure safety and effectiveness,” (ProCon.org, 2012) therefor there should not be any reason to risk the health of any child. Vaccinating our children not only ensures their safety but also that of their future to come.

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.)