Vaccinations; it’s an intimidating word. Imagine your child being stabbed with needles containing diseases just because your pediatrician said it helps. While a good portion of the audience here today can understand this issue, my question is why are vaccinations such a problem? More specifically, what are the altercations of religious exemptions to vaccines? While it seems to be a personal issue, the choice to or not to vaccinate affects the lives of everyone in your community. All I ask is that you keep an open mind and listen to the information I will present today in hopes that you will better understand vaccinations and the necessity for mandatory vaccination. 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.
Following in America, mandatory vaccination was not a national issue until the 1980s. Mandatory vaccination stayed on a school by school basis prominently in the New England area. Massachusetts was the first state to enact
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.
Imagine traveling to the “Happiest Place on Earth”, Disneyland, with your family. While you are there a person that has not been vaccinated is walking around with the measles virus in their system. While that person shows no signs or symptoms of the measles, they are infecting others that haven’t been vaccinated, due to young age or other purposes. Now what turned out to be many people’s family vacations is now a life-threatening situation for some. This type of outbreak actually occurred during December of 2014, where 40 Californians were exposed to the measles at Disneyland and 91 additional cases of the outbreak strain also occurred from the people exposed affecting others (Blumberg et al, 2015). Outbreaks likes this can potentially be
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.
Mandatory vaccinations have been hotly debated in the United States for over two centuries, making the argument almost as old as the country itself. As early as 1809, Massachusetts became the first state to mandate the world’s premiere vaccine. Authorities recognized the life-saving benefits of the smallpox vaccine. They chose to require inoculation to protect the community from further outbreaks. Public outrage ensued as some community members feared the new vaccine and believed they should be able to choose if they wished to receive it. The most vocal protestors formed anti-compulsory vaccination groups and were successful in getting laws overturned in many states. However, even the United States Supreme Court has upheld states’ rights to require immunization. (A) Vaccinations should be
Recently an anti-vaccination movement has sparked a worldwide discussion about both the safety of vaccines and the responsibility of people to vaccinate. Recent outbreaks of preventable diseases have caused both fear and anger from people on both sides of the issue. These same outbreaks have also served to cause significant political tension between those against vaccines, who do not want their right to choose compromised, and many proponents of vaccines, who are calling for mandatory vaccinations.
Religious beliefs are fundamental rights of the people. As such they are inviolable, within reason. A person cannot simply make up whatever religious beliefs they choose and expect these to be honored by society. Nevertheless, vaccinating against diseases is a practice that has well established resistance among many religious people. Such resistance, as an issue of faith among many people, should be respected by school systems (McFall, 2008).
According to the most recent statistics, 1 in every 20 kindergarten students have not had the proper vaccinations required of school age children (PBS). All 50 states prohibit students who lack proper vaccinations from attending public, and many private, schools (CDC). However, exemptions to this rule are made if the vaccination requirement conflicts with the religious beliefs (effective in all 50 states) or philosophical beliefs (effective in 19 states) of the parents of these children (CDC). The number of parents with “philosophical beliefs” against vaccinations has increased dramatically over the past century. These beliefs however are based solely upon the influences of rumors from the media and not from the scientific or medical community. Parents are afraid to vaccinate their children due to falsified beliefs that vaccinations cause other health problems, contain life-threatening ingredients, and are unnecessary in today’s society.
A wise Welsh man once said, “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away.” But, can that also be said about immunizations? According to the Medilexicon medical dictionary, “an immunization is the action of making a person or animal immune to infection, typically by inoculation.” The Merriam-Webster Dictionary provides a more technical definition of immunizations by defining them as “the creation of immunity usually against a particular disease, treatment (as by vaccination) of an organism for the purpose of making it immune to a particular pathogen.” Most people feel that immunizations are a very important part of a health care regimen and should be mandatory for the majority of individuals. But over the past several years, questions have
Immunization is very important to the safety and health of everyone, especially children. Whether on not to vaccinate is the big question here. The only reasonable choice to make is to vaccinate. Immunization is not bad; moreover, the choice to not receive shots is dangerous. The choice to vaccinate your child could be a choice of either life or death. Vaccines are safer and easier than many people think. Immunization can protect from loss of time and money due to hospitalization, and can save future generations. Becoming educated on vaccinations and how they work will save lives one day.
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
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.
You and your significant other have just found out that you’re pregnant. You will carry the baby for 9 months and you will protect it with your own body, but what happens after birth? What kind of protection should you provide them with? The question is to vaccinate, or to not vaccinate? First off, let’s start with what a vaccine is. A vaccine is a substance that produces antibodies and provides immunity against one or many diseases. A vaccine is made up and prepared with the disease that causes it, its products, or a synthetic substitute. It’s treated to act like an antigen without producing the disease. So to simplify this, patients are injected
The Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the virus responsible for cervical cancer. It is one the most common viral sexually transmitted infections. A vaccine was approved in 2006 that is effective in preventing the types of HPV responsible for 70% of cervical cancers and 90% of genital warts. Proposals for routine and mandatory HPV vaccination of girls have become sources of controversy for parents of school-aged youth, legislators, members of the medical community, and the public at large (Cooper et al. 2010).
Keeping yourself healthy can be done in a number of ways, but the most important few would be: eating healthy, check-ups, exercising, and vaccines. A vaccination is considered to be the most beneficial and protected precaution you can take. Less than 50 percent of all Americans got vaccinated in the 2017 flu season. The reasons to actually get vaccinated could include the money you waste on missing work/ medical bills, to getting friends and family sick, but a main concern is not what the vaccine is preventing, but what it is doing harmful to your brain and body. In studies starting in the 1990’s, people started to believe vaccines could be causing Autism in young kids.
Vaccinations are one of the modern era’s most notable medical advances. They have shaped our society in ways that are easily forgotten, eradicating diseases that once posed a threat to the United States and protect the world against ruthless diseases that kill mass amounts of people. Vaccinations not only protect individuals, but also society as a whole and should be required for everyone attending school, regardless of philosophical or religious beliefs. The only exception for not receiving vaccinations should be given to those who would suffer more harm than good as a result, such as cancer patients, those with weakened immune systems, or those with allergies to the ingredients.