Pros And Cons Of Vaccinating Children

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.

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.

When most people are babies they go to the doctor and get immunizations or vaccines. People get vaccines to protect they from harmful diseases like polio, smallpox, and the measles. Now parents are starting not to vaccinate their children because they fear the vaccines. When vaccines first came out parents took their children right away to be vaccinated because they knew the terrible things those diseases can bring. Now those diseases are gone and parents do not know what they can do to a child. Although some may argue that vaccinating babies and young children is a bad idea it is actually good because it protects others, prevents outbreaks, and they are not harmful to most children.

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.

Vaccination give in two doses, the first one between 12-15 months of age, the second given between 4-6 years of age (CDC).

Although the topic of vaccines and completing all recommended vaccine series can sometimes be difficult for some parents to comprehend, proper education and evidence based research can facilitate the goal of vaccinating children as adequately as possible. In recent years, the number of vaccines has increased. Children who are not immunized can readily transmit vaccine-preventable diseases throughout

For many years, there has been a controversy about whether or not vaccinations should be mandated for everyone. In the United States, many diseases such as polio, diphtheria, measles, and whooping cough used to be extremely common, until vaccinations came around and started preventing these diseases. The main point for vaccines is to prepare a person’s immune system for any possible attack of a disease that comes in the future; a person’s body will be prepared to fight off the disease with the vaccine (“Basics”). Vaccines have the ability to prevent many cases of these diseases in advanced, but there are people who think vaccines are unnatural and should not be required for their children. It is said that immunity in child vaccines are about 90%-100%, which is an increase over the past few years (“Childhood”). Although many Americans believe that vaccines are unsafe and cause autism in children, vaccinations for children should be mandatory because they can save a child’s life, create herd immunity in a community, and they have been proven safe/cost-effective.

However, as a whole, vaccinating one's child could keep him/her and others from getting sick, and their are many reasons why parents should consider it. Side effects may occur, but are usually minor. “Most side effects from vaccinations are mild, such as soreness, swelling, or redness at the injection site” (History of Polio). The myth that vaccines cause autism has been debunked. Andrew Wakefield published an article insisting that the “measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine were increasing autism in British children. The article has since been discredited due to many different violations with it, and has since lost his medical licence. (The History of Vaccines) Another myth is to wait until the child is older because their immune systems can’t handle vaccines when young. If the child waits to get the vaccine, they may be more susceptible to the disease, putting a great risk of the child at getting the disease. According to Dr. Offit, “a baby’s body is bombarded with immunological challenges, from bacteria in food to the dust they breathe” (Vaccines - The Safest). This shows that a baby’s immune system is well adapted, and comes in contact with many airborne microbes. Compared to everything else a baby may come into contact with, the vaccine is nothing the immune system can’t handle (Ten Vaccine Myths). Lastly, some believe that because most people got vaccinated, the disease has been eradicated. While that may be true in most cases, it can be very risky not to get the vaccination. “The ability of immunizations to prevent the spread of infection depends on having a certain number of children immunized. Unfortunately, the level of immunization required to prevent diseases such as measles from spreading from child to child is high—95 percent" (Ten Vaccine Myths). Just because others got vaccinated does not guarantee one's safety from the disease. There are many misconceptions about

Mandated Vaccinations are a huge argument right now because of health and disease issues. There are people on both sides of this argument. Some people are against vaccinating their children because they feel they are being forced to have their child get vaccinated. While some people feel the need that vaccinations are important to protect themselves from any illness or diseases. Vaccinations should be mandatory for all schools and health care purposes.

There are no federal laws that mandate the vaccinations of children as of yet. There is however certain guideline in all fifty states that require children to have certain vaccinations before entering the public school system. The only children that are exempt from this are those that have medical or religious exemptions that allow them to go without the vaccinations. Those children would more than likely be homeschooled.

Growing up, vaccinations were a normal part of childhood along with a loose tooth and a scraped knee. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that vaccinations will prevent more than 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths among children born in the last 20 years (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). However, in recent years, vaccinations have become a controversial issue among parents, with many choosing not to vaccinate their children. This dangerous trend has emerged largely due to a discredited link between vaccines and Autism, and caused a resurgence of several life-threatening diseases which had been all but eradicated. With the safety of all people in mind, as well as easing the financial strain on our health care system from treating preventable diseases, vaccines for children should be mandatory.

Today 's children are immunized by age 13 against some 16 diseases (or 53 vaccine doses), including measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), hepatitis A and B, meningitis, pneumonia, polio, chicken pox, flu, rotavirus and the human papillomavirus. Most vaccinations are required, such as measles, tetanus, polio. Others are optional, such as flue, chicken pox, or hpv, although recommend, parents are given the option for those vaccinations. As harmless as any of these may seem, some of these are life threatening and not something anyone would want to have.

Should children be vaccinated? This is a question that has been a hot topic for some time now. All children should be vaccinated. We often ask “Why should we have our children vaccinated”? There are pros and cons to vaccinations. Vaccinations will reduce the risk of illness, provide a safer environment, and keep the parents from worry as much. In some cases, people think they cause more harm than anything.

What happens when the promotion of health involving public health actions affects the right of individuals? There is extended debate involving a lot of situations when the public health ethics are questioned and it is hard to find a right answer on the academic literature. An article wrote by Rajczi, A (2015) entitled “Liberalism and Public Health Ethics”, one of the points brought by Rajczi is a type of liberalism that allow the state stop individuals from harming themselves when their choices are involuntary (e.g. children). Where is the childhood vaccination found in the middle of this debate when parents decide not to immunize their children?

Many people remember receiving the tedious flu shots and other preventative injections to protect them from diseases as a child. Even since childbirth, humans receive vaccinations for several different reasons, the main one being that their bodies have not yet developed a strong immune system. Although prior to birth, babies maintain a portion of the immunity provided by the mother, however, “These antibodies decrease over time, leaving the infant vulnerable to disease” (Vaccines for Your Children: Protect Your Child at Every Age). Due to their undeveloped defense system, they are far more susceptible to illnesses, and having these immunizations available can help prevent these potentially mortal conditions. For