Should Vaccines Be Mandatory Research Paper

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.

Although the negative claims behind anti-immunization stances are deceptive and discredited, some parents find it difficult to accept that vaccines are necessary and safe. Many of these reasons are due to personal or religious beliefs that have persuaded parents to bypass immunizations for their children. Consequently, health officials are seeing disquieting rises of diseases that are easily preventable. The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) has reported hundreds of measles cases in the United States in 2011, the largest number in 15 years (Ben-Joseph, Elana). Essentially, almost all of these cases were in individuals who had not received a vaccine shot. Also found in the article was that a great amount of the quarrel over the shots comes from a 1998 study that tried to connect autism to a type of vaccine that defends against measles. However, there has been no scientific evidence that a vaccine or a combination of any of the shots induces autism. Undoubtedly, the doctor that wrote the article, calling vaccines a “deliberate fraud” ,lost his license for not submitting any evidence of his claim and causing people to neglect shots for that year. Sadly, due to that article, 1 in 4 parents still believe that vaccines are

In order to investigate more about Wakefield’s study, Brian Deer, a journalist of British Medical Journal, carefully talked to the parents of all children who were participated in the study. Interestingly enough, he revealed the fraud behind Wakefield’s research. The Lancet, the journal that reported Wakefield’s study, retracted the paper soon afterwards (Deer). However, the real trouble still exists. Though it has been proved by many researchers that the MRR doesn’t cause autism, many people perceive the vaccine as a threat. Dr.Nemeroff once said “it is quite difficult to get the cognitive sewage out of the water even after the real sewage is gone” (Greene).

​Over the past decade, the concern among parents regarding the safety and effectiveness of childhood vaccinations has become a concern in the United States and other countries around the world. A survey of physicians showed that 89% of the physicians who were surveyed reported at least one refusal of childhood vaccinations by parents each month (Gowda & Dempsey, 2013). Other researchers have noted that as many as 77% of parents have concerned about one or more of the childhood vaccinations that are recommended for children (McKee & Bohannon, 2016). However, organizations such as the World Health Organization (2017) note that not only are childhood vaccinations safe, the reduction in children receiving childhood vaccinations has brought back diseases such as measles that had been completely wiped out in the United States. It is clear that there are opposing viewpoints about childhood vaccinations that need to be understood and examined to determine which side has a better argument.

This led to the support of various unproven vaccine-autism theories by parents in both the UK and America. After findings of intestinal disease in children with autism, Wakefield claimed that separating the MMR into three different vaccinations would be safer. Since then, Wakefield’s research has been discredited, he was charged with serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council for violating several ethical practices, and he was investigated for failing to disclose conflict of interest – a pending patent on a rival measles vaccine (Gross, 2009). Although false, many still believe wholeheartedly that vaccines are harmful.

One such factor helping to manifest these large-scale epidemics is a study from 1998 by Andrew Wakefield, which claimed that there was a direct link between autism and the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine (Smith 1). As a result, many parents refused to vaccinate their children out of fear, and vaccine-preventable diseases like measles began reappearing more in both America and Britain, the place where Wakefield conducted his study (Cohen 2). Although a later investigation by the British Medical Journal discovered that Wakefield had distorted or altered the medical records of all twelve of the study’s participants and that he had been paid $674,000 USD by lawyers attempting to sue vaccine manufacturers, the atmosphere of apprehension surrounding vaccines is still strong among many individuals, and especially parents (Cohen 1-2). But despite all the controversy and the scientifically unsupported arguments of anti-vaccine sympathizers,

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.

In recent years there has been a movement against giving vaccines to children that has grown to include nearly 40% of parents in the United States. But it is due to these vaccines that most children today have never experienced diseases such as polio or measles, as their grandparents have. Since they have not seen these diseases, parents feel it is unnecessary to vaccinate them due to the possible side effects or that they cause autism (“Parental Delay”). However, vaccines are critical for eradicating these deadly infectious diseases, and are vitally needed to keep them under control. This makes it necessary that children who wish to attend school have mandatory vaccinations against diseases such as polio and measles, without exception. Therefor this paper will show the benefits of getting vaccinated are potentially saving your child 's life, stops the viruses from spreading to other children, and protects your families from disease which can save your family time away from work, and the cost of prolonged hospital stays (“Five Important Reasons”). The diseases themselves are very dangerous and pose a very serious threat to people who are immunocompromised, plus they can cause disfigurement, paralysis, or sometimes death, thus proving that the risks of contracting them are worse than the side effects of the vaccines. Vaccines do have side effects, but not one of them is autism, and there is ample scientific evidence to back it up. It is vital to everyone that the current

In this modern era, when one becomes ill, there is the reassurance that most likely there’s a vaccination for this illness. Granted, not all illnesses can be cured by immunization and require a different procedure, but when a big viral epidemic occurs, scientists rush to create a vaccination and quickly disperse it to eradicate the new disease. But how did these immunization programs begin? How do they work? And how successful have they been at terminating illness?

Parents need to realize that the risks of not being vaccinated greatly compensate the minimal risks associated with vaccination. Diseases such as measles and mumps are entirely preventable, and if are not prevented can cause permanent disability and death. A little over a decade ago a measles outbreak amongst unvaccinated children in Philadelphia resulted in seven deaths. It is also known that children who become infected with mumps become permanently deaf. What many parents do not realize is that an outbreak can be totally

In a 2011 study conducted by Public Health Reports, the official journal of the U.S. Public Health Service, it was discovered among parents who delay and refuse vaccines for their child, fifty-seven percent claimed they did so because they were concerned their child would develop autism. Parents continuously believe in these untrue ideas, because they are simply uneducated. The National Consumers League took a survey of one-thousand seven hundred and fifty-six U.S. adults. The survey revealed fifty percent of parents are aware only of the study by Andrew Wakefield which linked autism to the MMR vaccination; only half of the parents are aware the study has been discredited and retracted. This lack of knowledge has led to the increase in number of non-medical vaccine exemptions.

When taking your young child to go to something “safe and secure” could we really are sending them to an illness that is severe and cannot be cured? There is a big debate floating around say whether we should get vaccinated, but a bigger question to ask is whether we should let the government decide if we have to use vaccines. Should we let our future generation decide, or should we push them on the path we think they should go on (the path of making sure everyone getting vaccinated). This path isn't all that pretty once you go behind the possible effects of it. These aren't just small effects made by the disease; they are big and can be incurable diseases like autism. Also everyone is a different person and different genes, some people are not recommended for taking a vaccine, this would be unfair to those people and could hurt them instead of helping them. Should it really be worth it just to get rid of some diseases?

As time progressed, scientific innovations have led to the development of vaccines for various types of infectious diseases. Diseases that were once feared by the American public such as smallpox, whooping cough, and polio have now become rare. Smallpox has even been eradicated with the last naturally occurring case presenting itself in 1980. Vaccines were once welcomed with open arms by the citizens of the United States, but that all changed in the late 1990s when Dr. Andrew Wakefield and his collegues published a report the linked the MMR vaccine to autism. The MMR (measles, mumps, and rubuella) vaccine is usually administered to children 12 months and

Imagine being at the happiest place on earth only to get infected by the Measles. This occurred at Disneyland in 2015. Fortunately, there were no deaths, but 141 people were infected (News, 2015). Vaccinations can save your child’s life; they are safe, effective, and can protect people around you. There are many misconceptions about being vaccinated. Some people feel that vaccinations cause more harm than good. Others feel vaccinations are an important part of theirs or their child’s wellbeing.