Is Child Vaccination a Good Idea?
Today, there are many controversial topics around the world that people cannot seem to agree on. One such topic is whether children should be vaccinated. As babies, we are born with antibodies transferred through our mother’s placenta. These antibodies protect babies from particular diseases. Breastfed babies after birth remain receiving more antibodies from breast milk. However, the protection from these antibodies is only momentarily in both instances. Vaccinations, also known as immunization, is a method that uses small quantities of a dead or weakened microorganism from a specific disease in order to create resistance to it. When vaccinated, children’s immune system undergoes a stimulation to react as
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However, there are many beneficial effects. Such benefits include protection of the whole population, the ability to save children’s lives, and eradication of diseases. In my opinion the benefits far outweigh the detriment.
A major benefit of vaccinating children is that the whole population exploits from this. If children are vaccinated, they become immune to whatever disease the vaccine protects against for example, measles. Thus, if someone were to have measles, whoever is immune would not contract it. If the population was not immune to easily preventable illnesses such as smallpox and diphtheria, then epidemics could erupt, killing most of the population. This has been proven to be true in the history of America. Once the Europeans came over the America, they had already formed a resistance to smallpox. However, the Native Americans had never been exposed to those diseases found in civilizations. Once the Europeans came in contact with the Native Americans, entire tribes would become extinct due to their immune systems not forming antibodies that could fight against diseases from Europe. This still happens to somewhat the case today. This can be demonstrated “in 2011,” when “49 US states did not meet the 92-94% herd immunity threshold for pertussis (whooping cough), resulting in a 2012 outbreak that sickened 42,000 people and was the biggest outbreak since 1955” (Too Many Children Go Unvaccinated). Even though entire populations are not being eradicated
Furthermore, there are beneficial reasons for embracing vaccinations for one’s children. Children are especially vulnerable to disease because their immune systems have not yet developed, and getting a serious illness can have
Children's immune systems are not as strong as an adults, therefore it is crucial children are regularly vaccinated to prevent and defeat diseases. To begin, a huge number of children’s lives have been saved from diseases and illnesses because of vaccines. For example, vaccines save about two and half million children’s lives each year from preventable diseases (Source 1). In other words, vaccines are effective in fighting off diseases. Vaccinations are saving children’s lives because they help prevent getting an illness or disease.
Immunity is our body’s way of preventing diseases. Newborn babies are immune to many diseases because they have antibodies that they received from their mothers in the womb. Throughout their first year of life, however, this immunity begins to go away. Vaccines contain the same antigens or parts of antigens that cause disease. The antigens in vaccines are either killed or weakened to the point that they do not cause disease yet are strong enough that the immune system produces the antibodies that lead to immunity. Through vaccination, a child is developing immunity without suffering from the actual disease that the vaccine prevents (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). It is strongly supported by large organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Centers for
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.
The smallpox vaccine helped the entire world be eradicated from smallpox. This means that there are no cases of naturally occurring smallpox in the world. Think about the millions of lives saved because of this vaccine. What if all children were required to have vaccines? How many diseases could we eradicate from the world? Currently, we have sixteen routine diseases that we vaccinate against between birth and eighteen years of age. Most of these diseases can cause symptoms like heart failure, pneumonia, coma, blood disorders, meningitis, cancer, brain swelling, paralysis, and death. Why wouldn’t we want to protect our children from this? Especially when the diseases are so easily spread by air, or direct
All living things on this earth are subject to attack from a disease-causing agent. Therefore, multicellular animals have dedicated cells and tissues that fight off infectious microbes in order to build immunity. A multitude of specialized cells carries out much of the immune system’s work. Each of these cells is intended to fight off diseases in a particular way. Vaccination, which is one of the methods that is used to prevent germs from proliferating, is subject of many discussions. While opponents believe that most of the diseases such as diphtheria and varicella are not necessarily harmful, and that injecting questionable vaccine ingredient into a child may cause side effects, such as seizures, paralysis, proponents believe that vaccination has been one of the greatest developments of the 20th century. It has served as a protection for the community, and has saved children and parent’s time money.
Immunizations were created to keep children and adults healthy and safe. Edward Jenner administered the world’s first vaccination known as the smallpox vaccine, which had killed millions of people over the centuries (). Jenner administered the vaccine on an eight year old boy who he exposed to the fluid of a cowpox blisters, the boy developed a blister which eventually went away. Jenner then exposed the boy to the smallpox disease and the boy did not get sick, this led to the smallpox vaccine and the drastic decline in the smallpox disease. Fast-forward three centuries later and the small pox diseases is eradicated do to people receiving the vaccine. Immunizations are extremely important to the world’s overall health. Babies and children are most vulnerable to disease because they are son young and their organs and bodies are growing at a rapid rate. It is important for children to be immunized against vaccine preventable diseases such as: rubella, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough), and a host of other diseases. High vaccination coverage has significantly reduced vaccine-preventable disease morbidity and mortality worldwide, especially among children (Baggs et. al., 2011). While some people focus on the cons of vaccinations, there are many pros to children receiving vaccinations.
I believe that parents shouldn’t have the right to decide if their kids get vaccinated. Kids that haven’t been vaccinated can get other kids sick The number of kids saved by vaccines is greater than the number of kids killed by vaccines. Vaccinations save kids, can eradicate a disease, and can benefit society economically. Vaccines have many benefits; therefore parents shouldn’t have the right to decide if their kids get vaccinated.
A 2013 CDC blog tells people that 71% of babies between ages 17-35 months are vaccinated for 7 diseases. Where is the other 29%. Most of the 29% say that it genetically passes autistic genes . others say that it will hurt the baby . Out of the 71% say that it will help save their kids from life threatening diseases.Even though the baby will cry , it's not like the baby will remember and cause malice. Not vaccinating babies can affect their lives emotionally and physically . Why is this happening to 29% of americans . All kids should be vaccinated so that it will keep them safe from deadly diseases and decrease the count of people contracting the disease.
Another benefit of vaccines is that they have eradicated some illnesses. There are some illnesses, such as polio and smallpox, that have been diminished by vaccines. The author states in “Should Vaccines Be Required for Children?” “In the twentieth century, there were 16,316 deaths from polio and 29,004 deaths from smallpox yearly in the United States; in 2012 there were no reported cases of polio or smallpox.” Those disease have diminished because vaccines have prevented the diseases, and eventually, the diseases were eliminated. Because of vaccines, there are some illnesses that are
Not only does the vaccination save the vaccinated child’s saves but it also saves other childrens lives as well. Along with saving lives vaccinations give children a longer healthier life as most doctors say. Vaccinations contain medicine that prevents and makes the body immune to the infectious disease or illness. Getting a child vaccinated is a smart choice which will only benefit the child in the future by protecting them from preventable diseases and illnesses. Most childhood vaccines are ninety percent to ninety nine percent effective when it comes to preventing disease and illnesses according to The American Academy of Pediatrics. But do not misunderstand me, vaccinations are not one hundred percent effective. However just like an Ohio mom states, she would rather be safe than sorry( LaGrand ). Even with some vaccinations not being one hundred percent effective it is still important to get it because it still protects the child from the specific disease or illness somewhat. Immunizations are almost nearly one hundred effective which means that a child who gets vaccinated has less of a chance of catching the preventable illness or disease than a child who is not vaccinated against it. With vaccinations protecting against chickenpox, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, measles, polio, rabies, and many other common illnesses, they have prevented many children already from simple illnesses as well as deadly illnesses. Medical discoveries are tremendous with all the different types of immunizations available for diseases and illnesses. Vaccinations stop preventable diseases and infections saving many children from illness. Immunizations protect children and allow them to have the opportunity at a longer healthier life, so if parents vaccinate their children they would be giving their children longer and healthier
Why move backward when you can move forward? Vaccinations are considered to be one of the greatest health developments in the 20th century. A vaccine is defined as “a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease.” Hundred of thousands of lives have been saved in the last twenty years due to vaccines. Although no federal law exists, all fifty states require students to be vaccinated. However, every state allows for medical exceptions, forty-eight states have religious exceptions, and nineteen states allow exceptions for
Today we seem to take in many conversations on whether mandatory vaccinations are good for our kids. With nearly 90 percentage parents in the U.S. understand the risk vs. benefit factor to be in favor too vaccinate, when handed the choice, about a 10 percent of parents delay or cut some shots with 1 percent that don’t vaccinate at all. (Pemberton, 2015) We see viruses from our past, which were heavily infected among our grandparents or parents ' time, such as poliomyelitis and measles, as children, appear in certain parts of the U.S., but have the feeling that these are isolated or have no significance. Many of these diseases have all but been eliminated, do with vaccinations. But the growing concern is that if we continue to choose not to vaccinate, the viruses we are straining to prevent will resurface, and may produce more potent forms of themselves. The part that grows not to vaccinate, fear or have queries on whether the risk is worth the benefit, and are usually comparing this to the narrations of others or some of the few examples that are perceived linked to side effects from receiving a vaccination. This only will lead to serious consequences, more so for infants, or young children, which could lead to be deadly. Mandatory vaccinations should be applied to all children because the importance it bears on our communities, the effect that vaccinations have, and the misplaced fears linked to vaccinations are vital to ensure that we live a healthier
Many vaccines are “designed to protect infants and children early in life” (“What are the Reasons to Vaccinate My Baby?”, 2016, para. 9). This shows that scientists are working hard to protect children at a young age. When one vaccinates his or her child at a young age, it not only protects during childhood, but also adulthood. This keeps the child healthy all of his or her life. Not only do children need protection early in childhood, but also the right amounts of dosages. “Not receiving the full number of doses leaves a child vulnerable to catching serious diseases” (“What are the Reasons to Vaccinate My Baby?”, 2016, para. 10). This allows people to understand that children can still be prone to diseases if they do not have the recommended amount. For a child, it is needed to receive the full dosages to be fully protected. A recommended immunization schedule has been created for the public. This schedule proposes the design on how to protect children early on in their lives before “being exposed to the potentially life threatening diseases” (“What are the Reasons to Vaccinate My Baby?”, 2016, para. 10). Receiving immunizations at a certain age also helps the vaccine do its job in the best way. Due to children needing vaccinations early in life to keep them healthy, it creates another reason as to why people support
“Standard immunization currently averts an estimated two to three million deaths every year in all age groups” (“General Information”). Children along with adults should be vaccinated because these Inoculations prevent diseases, even deaths, from going around, along with keeping the environment a safer place. As people know, kids get vaccinated from the time born to about the time the child reaches teen years, although getting immunized does not precisely stop at any age. In fact, required vaccinations continue throughout the years. Of course these medical treatments must be tested in order to be given to anyone. In spite of the fact many people themselves argue that inoculations are not safe for children, others are thoroughly certain in