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.
All too often we hear on the news of the devastating effects of a disease that could have been prevented by vaccines, but because of parents refusal to vaccinate their infants and children, public health professionals are now confronted with a health crisis. The importance of vaccinations is to provide children with added protection because of a young, developing immune system. Consequently, vaccines will help in boosting the immune system in recognizing and protecting children from vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles, mumps, and pertussis, also known as whooping cough.1 For example, pertussis, a bacterial infection that is preventable by vaccines, has infected 16 million persons worldwide, and causes about 195,000 deaths
Vaccines have saved many children from sickness, death and have terminated a large part of infectious diseases in the world. That being said, whether to immunize or not is the ongoing question parents face each day. On one hand, questions are raised about the safety of some vaccines because of rare but serious adverse effects that have been attributed to them. On the other hand, vaccines are known to help prevent death and serious illnesses. Hence, this paper explores the pros and cons of children's vaccines.
Would you ever take away a prime defense from your child? Some parents are doing so without even knowing it. Per Glanz and Daley, “Last year 10 children died in California in the worst whooping cough outbreak to sweep the state since 1947.” (Daley, Glanz, N.p.) These are illnesses that are preventable with vaccinations. Childhood vaccinations are key for the protection of children, the people around them and the prevention of widespread disease.
When one is given a vaccine, he or she is being injected with a killed microbe to train his or her immune system to be able to fight it off, in hopes to prevent a future disease. Whether or not to vaccinate one’s child has been a controversy through the years, because some vaccines have had unplanned side effects. These unplanned side effects have caused parents to be skeptical on whether or not to vaccinate their child, despite getting vaccines can possibly prevent a fatal disease. Many questions have risen from this practice of vaccination, in which Dr. William C. Douglass attempts to answer in his article, “How To Win the Vaccine Argument Every Single Time”. Although William C. Douglass provides decent arguments
“In 2011 alone, 1.5 million children died [worldwide] from diseases preventable by currently recommended vaccines” (“Immunization” 2). The magnitude of this tragedy is in part caused by the fact that some of those children simply weren’t reached by organizations like UNICEF, which aim to vaccinate children (“Immunization” 2). However, there are other reasons for the recent deaths and epidemics—such as the whooping cough epidemic of 2012, with 48,000 cases nationally in the United States—involving vaccine preventable diseases (McClay 1).
As humans we have a tendency to make decisions before completely rationalizing them thoroughly. Through science we now know that our frontal lobe, which is responsible for motor function, problem solving, memory, judgment, impulse control and much more does not fully mature until our late twenties. The average age to start having children is in our early twenties, (25 years of age or younger) not to mention the teen parents. Throughout childbirth, one question that needs proper judgment and consideration to make is, whether to have their children vaccinated. One barrier that can affect parent when making solid decisions about childhood vaccinations is the scientific terminology doctor and other people use. For example, when comparing the word vaccination to immunization sometimes people will use the terms interchangeably not realizing that they have two distant meanings. Vaccination is just that, a vaccine that that is administered to develop immunity, or immunization, to a specific disease. Childhood vaccinations are a crucial part to the development of children and their health, despite the barriers that are present. By introducing research to the community regarding possible risk factor, myths that are commonly associated with childhood vaccinations, and possible laws, the goal is to help people understand why all children should be vaccinated.
Vaccinating your child seems to be the question of the decade for many parents and families. Typically, parents usually follow their doctors advice and automatically get their children vaccinated. But now, almost every parent has heard these concerning and alarming side effects that may accompany vaccinations. Faced with conflicting information, there are many questions that arise from these concerns and parents do not want their children to catch any crucial illness but are also concerned about the risk and side affects of vaccines. Challengers have claimed that vaccines do not work, that they are or may be dangerous, or that mandatory vaccinations violate individual rights or religious principles. Some wonder, are vaccinations even 100%
Vaccinations have strongly integrated into modern medicine, where several generations have grown up without being exposed to epidemics of many dangerous even deadly diseases. However, during the recent decade an anti-vaccine movement has emerged, powered by individuals claiming the negative effects vaccines are causing children. The two sides of the controversial debate between physicians and parents beliefs regarding the vaccination of children, and the potential effect of the reduction in the number of vaccinated people. It is considered an asymmetrical conversation, where on one side there are doctors, epidemiologists, pharmacologists and social scientists, and on the other side there are parents, writers, and activists who believe to speak with authority of individual experience against vaccinations. While many individuals believe that getting their children vaccinated is a must to prevent harmful diseases such as measles and whooping cough, others believe that vaccines are one of the leading causes to many uprising disorders such as autism and other neurological problems. This essay explains the different reasons parents are rejecting certain vaccinations for their children. By the time a child is 6 years old, the Center of Disease Control and Prevention provides a recommended set of vaccinations for every child. These vaccinations minimize the risk of spreading for virus
In the last century, vaccinations have become the single most leading achievement in public health because these vaccines have saved millions of lives as well as prevented illness and lifelong disability. These childhood diseases that once resulted in hospitalization, death or lifelong consequences only a few decades ago have now become preventable. If we do not vaccinate against diseases such as RV, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Influenza, Measles, Mumps, and Rubella there could be serious outbreaks. It is my belief that as parents, the goal is to give children a healthy start in life and one of the most important decisions that can be made is to get your child vaccinated, especially since there are no effective alternatives to immunization.
With all the diseases and virus 's spreading throughout our world, the issue of vaccinating children at a young age raises concerns. While some parents choose to vaccinate their children, others allow the human body and the immune system to take control of the situation. Over time, arguments have risen that the chemicals put into vaccinations can have harmful side effects and impacts on the human body if taken incorrectly. There are many similarities and differences seen between the two life style choices such as economic factors, the health benefits of both life choices, and the health risks of the two. All of these factors help families of today 's society determine how their children will be raised medically.
Today, many people are concerned about the safety of immunization. Parents are unsure when it comes to vaccinating their child because they want what’s best for them, and inoculating a foreign agent into their body may produce anxiety. People must trust not getting a vaccination will do far more harm than good. The general population needs to be informed in regards to vaccination and realize the positives outweigh the negatives.
Vaccinating children has become increasingly unpopular among certain demographics of society. These people claim that vaccinations are hazardous to children's health and as such are not needed. this essay will argue why vaccinating against spreadable diseases is entirely necessary despite some potential risks.
A world without vaccinated children would be a very bad and very dangerous world. Not vaccinating children can be very dangerous and could even cause the death of an innocent child, whose parent made the decision to not vaccinate their child due to lack of education about vaccines. This has been a very controversial issue in the united states for a very long time and it is times for a change on the way parents think about vaccines and people need to work together to get vaccines to become a normal thing parents do for their children. Vaccines should be mandatory in the United States because it would insure the health of children in the U.S. , vaccines do more good than they do harm, and vaccines protect other people from contracting
There are many reasons why parents should and should not vaccinate, however, and the “why’s” far outweigh the “why not’s”. A few reasons why include that it saves lives and it can reduce the spread of the disease, or eliminate it altogether. However, some unfortunate happenings of vaccination, is the miniscule chance that the vaccine doesn’t work, or has devastating side effects, such as anaphylactic shock.
Immunizations are important because they protect our children’s lives against disease. According to the CDC, Center for Disease Control, some diseases that once injured or killed thousands of children have been eliminated completely, and others are close to being gone, primarily due to safe and effective vaccines. For example, the one great impact vaccines have had is the eradication of polio in the United States (CDC). As stated, polio was once America’s most-feared disease, causing death and paralysis across the country, but today thanks to vaccination, there have not been any reports of polio
“Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak” (Berger, p. 7). In these famous lines, John Berger captures the efficacy that a simple photo can have in comparison to the written word. From childhood to adulthood, individuals can capture much greater meaning through examination of photography rather than reading text. Due to this, organizations commonly attempt to convey ideas through the use of pictures. Whether it may be an aspect of history, or a modern day controversial subject, the effectiveness in undeniable. To display that the common idiom “a picture is worth a thousand words” is valid, two portrayals of child vaccinations will be analyzed.