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Vaccinating Children Research Paper

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Young Adults More Likely to Say Vaccinating Kids Should Be a Parental Choice
Source: Monica Anderson/Pew Research Center/February 2, 2015

As the number of measles cases linked to the California outbreak climbs to over 100, health officials are urging parents to properly immunize their children, citing unvaccinated individuals as a main contributor to the disease’s spread. Some have linked the outbreak to the anti-vaccination movement – a group whose members claim vaccinations are unsafe and ineffective.

A Pew Research Center report released last week shows that a majority of Americans say children should be required to get vaccinated. Further analysis of the survey data reveals significant age differences in views about vaccines. In 2009, …show more content…

adults say childhood vaccinations should be required, while 30% say parents should be able to decide. Among all age groups, young adults are more likely to say vaccinating children should be a parental choice. Some 41% of 18- to 29-year-olds say parents should be able to decide whether or not their child gets vaccinated; only 20% of adults 65 or older echo this opinion.

Older Americans are strong supporters of requiring childhood vaccinations – 79% say they hold that view, compared with 59% of those under 30. One possible reason that older groups might be more supportive of mandatory vaccinations is that many among them remember when diseases like measles were common. Prior to the first licensed measles vaccine in 1963, hundreds of thousands of measles cases were reported annually in the U.S. In 1958 alone, there were more than 750,000 cases. A decade later, in 1968, that number fell to about 22,000, according to an analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Today, measles cases are extremely rare, but the CDC reported a spike in 2014, with more than
600 measles cases, the first such jump in more than a decade. The CDC attributed the increase to …show more content…

People who regularly take too much acetaminophen are the largest group of people hospitalized for acute liver failure. And, on average, one person in the United States dies every year from H20 intoxication, or drinking too much water. And yet, no armies have formed against aspirin, Tylenol or water.

David Katz, from Yale School of Public Health, wrote that it makes no more sense to rant against vaccines because you heard of someone who might have had an adverse reaction than to stop walking because you heard about a pedestrian struck by a car. In many ways, it is a luxury to be able to have this discussion at all. Having spent time in West Africa covering the Ebola outbreak, I saw how people hoped, wished and prayed for a vaccine -- to no avail. On the other hand, the measles vaccine is readily available, and yet vaccination rates in certain areas of the United States are similar to the refugee camps I have visited in Haiti, Pakistan and Jordan.

Yes, parents have a choice in this country. It is a choice that so many others around the world will never have. Of course I vaccinated my children. Didn't think twice. Not a big fan of the measles or mumps

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