Risk Versus Reward : The Continuing Vaccination Question

Between 1924 and 2013, vaccinations prevented 103 million cases of polio, measles, rubella, mumps, hepatitis A, diphtheria, and pertussis (Bailey). Vaccinating is “the process by which pathogenic cells are injected into a healthy person in an attempt to cause the body to develop antibodies to a particular virus or bacterium—successful creation of antibodies is referred to as immunity to the disease caused by the particular pathogen” (Introduction to Should Vaccinations be Mandatory). Popular conflicts regarding vaccination include the worry that this form of immunization isn’t natural, the idea that vaccination schedule for children in the U.S. takes away parents’ rights to make decisions for their children, and the concern that vaccinations aren’t safe for all children. Most doctors and scientists advocate for vaccinations in the name of herd immunity, protection against foreign diseases and prevention against pockets of disease outbreaks. Vaccinations should be mandatory for all children in the United States for who they are deemed safe and effective.

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.

Despite significant progress in the fight against preventable disease, millions still die needlessly each year. According to UNICEF, originally known as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, a vaccine preventable disease is responsible for 2 million fatal infections worldwide each year. About 75% of these deaths occur in children under five years of age. (N) In more vivid terms, UNICEF notes that vaccine-preventable diseases kill a child every 20 seconds. (D) Due to high rates of childhood vaccination, the United States has experienced a dramatic reduction in such deaths. A comparison of the years 1950 and 2010 clearly illustrates the benefits of vaccinations. During this 60-year period, deaths from diphtheria reduced from 410 to 0, tetanus from 336 to 3, pertussis from 1,118 to 26, and polio from 1,904 to 0. Measles deaths dropped from 468 in 1950 to 0 in 2008, the last year a United States death rate was recorded. It’s not surprising that vaccinations have been touted as one of the top ten health achievements of the 20th century by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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.

Many sites including Every Day Health and The Huffington Post suggest that spreading out vaccines are pointless and will do nothing but harm the children not receiving them. Dr. Gupta, a physician-journalist, counter-argued the idea of a new schedule stating, “altering the vaccine schedule by spacing vaccines further apart is dangerous in that it essentially leaves the child unvaccinated, defeating any purpose of vaccine prevention” (Gupta min. 1:35-2:28). Children are vulnerable at their age and so their risk for contracting diseases is much higher than those who’s immune system is fully developed. Many argue that vaccinating their child fourteen to even twenty times by the age of two is a positive decision and will benefit their child.

There is a lot of debate about whether if vaccines should be or should not be mandatory for all children or if their use should be up to the parents of the child. Part of the issue for many parents it the sheer volume of vaccines mandated by various government agencies. Based on the recommendations of these organizations, a child can receive “no less than 69 doses of 16 vaccines” (children-vaccines). With so many vaccines being given many parents question why so many children are sick or have various developmental or learning disabilities. In fact, one child out of 6 has a learning disability, one out of ten is asthmatic, and one out of 50 has some degree of autism. This means that almost 30% of children in the US have a significant disability

Many parents stress over the choice of deciding whether or not to vaccinate their children. The reason why deciding to vaccinate children is so difficult is due to the wide range of myths and side effects that are connected with vaccinations. Myths spread to parents all over the United States that the diseases don’t even exist anymore, rumors of vaccinations weakening a child’s immune system, and the risk of a child becoming autistic due to thimerisol in vaccinations. Side effects also scare parents out of getting their children vaccinated like brain damage, seizures, or allergic reactions, but then parents are pulled back to the thought of the possibility of

One of the greatest achievements of public health is that of vaccinations (Dubé et al., 2013).

Unvaccinated children are not only at great risk for dangerous infectious diseases, but they also pose a serious threat to the well-being of society as a whole. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that all children receive a series of twenty-four vaccinations, protecting against fourteen diseases, by the age of two. These are essential for additional immunization requirements later in life for attending public schools as well as a variety of occupations working with the general public. Parents should be required to follow these recommendations, without exception.

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

On the current, medically approved, vaccination schedule, children receive up to twenty-six shots by age two. According to some anti-vaccination advocates, “A schedule this intense tends to ‘overwhelm’ a young child’s immune system, causing more damage than good to the child’s body.”3(p103) An alternative schedule attempts to spread these same vaccines over a period of several years to avoid damage to children’s immune systems. However, there is overwhelming evidence that it is the alternative schedule that does more harm than good. Using an alternative schedule can result in under immunization, leaving a child at a high risk of contracting and spreading vaccine-preventable diseases to the

The Center for Disease Control describes vaccines as the greatest development in public health since clean drinking water. For several decades, vaccines have saved countless lives and helped eradicate some fatal diseases. The push to do away with vaccines will not only endanger our youth, but our society as a whole. Vaccination is needed to maintain a healthy balance within our country. Vaccines provide the immunity that comes from a natural infection without the consequences of a natural infection. Vaccinations save an ever-growing amount of lives every year. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that 732,000 American children were saved from death and 322 million cases of childhood illnesses were prevented between 1994 and 2014 due to vaccination (“Vaccine ProCon”).

Our current society is surrounded by the debatable usage of vaccines and its importance around the world. Since the introduction of immunizations, many diseases have been decreased and even eradicated from humanity. Even though this is true, serious side effects along with lifelong illnesses follow the temporary cure of viruses. A vaccine is a substance that delivers immunity against viruses and is used to stimulate the construction of antibodies. Vaccines are prepared from the disease itself treated to perform as an antigen without inducing the disease (Vaccines). These inoculations are used worldwide and various unknown infections have been speculated as the originations for them. Vaccines were originated as an alternative to cure viruses among people but the harmful symptoms, unknown links to incurable

Frequent vaccination has protected the unimmunized population throw the herd immunity resulting in lower childhood death rate and morbidity in the global population. However, parental trust in the safety and efficacy of the immunization programmes has been eroded by the various contradictory reports that emphasise the side effects of immunization and are ongoing barriers in accessing immunization hugely affect vaccination accomplishments. Vaccination is evidently identified as a greatest means of controlling infectious disease and it will continue to be the essential tool in controlling infection. Clearly, there is no doubt that immunization has hugely reduced the incidence and mortality of infection diseases in global context and should be continued and expanded until this disease have been eliminated completely. Therefore, future research must evaluate the claims against vaccination as quickly as possible to allay doubt spreading and policy makers should create new vaccination schedules which present evidence based statements regarding the safety and importance of

Protecting a child is what every mother strives for, but they can’t always prevent everything. Vaccinations are the help to a mother 's struggle with sick kids. Vaccines not only save a mother from a long day at home but they prevent crazy sick days. Control center of disease states that ; “Before vaccines many