Vaccination Argumentative Essay

Central Idea: Vaccination is important to young children, if not introduced, they will face medical repercussions.

Every year, more than ten million vaccinations are given to children under the age one. Ten million vaccinations just in babies, can you imagine the global number for all ages? Since the end of the 1700 century, vaccinations have built an immunity to many infectious diseases, saving millions of lives; however with new controversy data shows that these vaccines could be causing more harm than good. With the eradication of smallpox, vaccination numbers have skyrocketed and the effectiveness and safety have been questioned. To begin with readers will gain basic knowledge on what a vaccine really is and how it works.

The world has many problems. Society has trouble finding adequate protection against the elements, each other, and many other adversities. We cannot fix every problem. We fail to completely survive natural disasters, catastrophes, and even basic problems. We can’t even feed ourselves. However, there is one major problem that mankind is beginning to solve. Vaccines are changing the world. They are becoming vital to our well-being. Vaccinations should mandatorily be administered to all children, especially those in our school system.

Why are vaccines important, especially for children and immune-compromised adults? Vaccination protects from serious illness and complications caused by vaccine-preventable diseases. Despite many efforts and medical advances, infectious diseases like measles, mumps, and whooping cough are still a threat and often there are no cures available for these diseases. Smallpox has been eradicated due to a vaccine and many expect that other terrible infectious diseases will be eliminated in the near future. This paper will explore (1) the history of vaccination, (2) pros and cons of vaccinations, and lastly (3) the future of vaccines.

In 1998, a former PHD holder by the name of Andrew Wakefield wrote an article made completely on false pretenses. He claimed that vaccines caused autism. The article was withdrawn in February of 2010, along with his medical license in May (Chan). Most of the world shuns him for making this outrageous claim. Despite the retraction, six percent of Americans still believe the article (Almendrala). Regardless of the article being false, wanting a child to go through a torturous disease instead of them having a disability is

Vaccinations serve the primary function of protecting and strengthening immune functions. The purpose of vaccinations is to “prepare” the immune system from these pathogenic invasions by injecting a weakened strand of the pathogen into the DNA of the particular person (US Department of Health & Human Services, 2015). However, In relation to vaccination for children, some parents have become sceptical over the effectiveness and the supposedly harmful quantities contained in vaccines. Some have described vaccination as being increasing the risk of “debilitating a child for life or even killing them” – alleging that they simply “do not work…and contain deadly chemical additives” and more notably, “are highly profitable for drug companies, which aren’t held liable for damages” (NaturalNews, 2014).

The CDC estimates that vaccinations will prevent more than 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths among children born in the last 20 years (CDC). Smallpox once killed 35% of its victims, and now it is the only disease considered eradicated worldwide. Many other diseases have been eliminated in the Americas, including polio, rubella, and hepatitis. The countless lives and money saved by eliminating these diseases far outweigh the small, unproven risk that vaccines may be harmful.

According to NBC News, 1 in 4 parents believe that vaccines can cause autism in healthy children. The CDC has refuted this claim time and time again, but despite this, parents still believe that inoculation is the culprit for America’s increasing autism rate. While many blogs and books have been written regarding the correlation between the two, the hoax really took off in 1998, when former medical researcher Andrew Wakefield published a fraudulent article about the results from his unethical experiment, where he examined 12 children who had exhibited signs of autism and bowel issues after receiving MMR vaccines. The problem with his tests, however, was that he meddled with the numbers, in order to have them better fit his theory. In reality, only eight out of the twelve kids developed autistic symptoms, and even so, in seven of those cases, the medical records and general practitioner records proved that the autistic symptoms were never present, and that Wakefield had fabricated most of his Lancet reports. The repercussions of this faulty journalism have been destructive, to say the

Vaccinations can save your children’s life because of all the advantages in medical science, children all over the world can be protected by diseases and more. Diseases that have killed children have been looked into and there has been a vaccine made to help kill the disease or help prevent. (www.vaccines.gov)

In the year 1998, Dr. Andrew Wakefield published a scientific article that would eventually weaken the human species in both Europe and the United States and sow distrust in the idea of getting children properly vaccinated (Kolodziejski). In his article, Dr. Wakefield falsely claimed that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine could be linked to the development of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (Kolodziejski). Unfortunately, even though Dr. Wakefield’s study was discredited the “damage was already done” (McLeod 8). The article caused a decline of vaccinations of children by their parents for fear of unintentionally inflicting ASD upon them. Years later, Celebrities Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey also reinforced his ideas reflected in the article in the United States that caused a similar effect as well (McLeod 8). It is not surprising that outbreaks of diseases that were previously regulated by vaccinations began to occur once again following these events. It should be a requirement for children to get vaccinated because it saves the lives of children, it is safe, it benefits more than just the child and it is still a necessary precaution.

One of the main argument against vaccination is that ‘all vaccines contain toxic chemicals and poisons such as glycerin which is toxic to the kidney, liver and can cause lung damage’. (Thehealthyhomeeconomist.com, 2015). The claim that vaccine causes more damage, more problems and side effects instead of protecting children against infectious diseases and other complex diseases for instance chronic organ damage and diseases (such as cancer) is not supported by evidence. This claim cannot be taken into account because it is based on the personal anecdotal. The effects that a person encountered at the time of vaccine is for a short term. In addition, it cannot be proven if it is the vaccine that causes some incidents that occurred however scientists are aware of these incidents and that is why the vaccine is under control to minimize these issues. For instance, the immunizations in Australia must and have to pass 'stringent security testing' before being endorsed to be

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics “most childhood vaccines are 90%-99% effective in preventing diseases”. Also according to Shot@life, a United Nations Foundation partner organization, “vaccines save 2.5 million children from preventable diseases every year which equates to roughly 285 children saved every hour.” The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also 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. It is also pointed out that illnesses, including rubella, diphtheria, smallpox, polio, and whooping cough, are now prevented by

Ragan & Duffy (2012, p.23) have also shown high immunization rates have resulted in a substantial decline in vaccine preventable diseases, particularly vaccination have eliminated smallpox worldwide. In addition, in a study of Bawah, Phillips, Adjuik & smith etc. al (2010, p.95) found that vaccine exhibit large and statistically significant effect on child mortality. The risk of dying for children younger than five is reduced by more than 70% among those who are fully immunized, compared with those who are not and partial immunization also prevents mortality. Moreover, research by Dawson (2011, p.1032) also suggest that vaccination is vital intervention in

These levels, they claim, will not negatively impact children. In defense to that argument, medical advice from professionals becomes contradictory regarding vaccines, especially for children and babies. People are told that chemicals are terrible for our bodies, such as formaldehyde (National Centre for Immunisation Research & Disease, 2013), which is famously found in cigarettes. Yet, when it's an ingredient in a vaccine it is acceptable. Also, it is recommended that babies only consume breast milk or formula for the first few months of life. Yet vaccines are given to them at these stages, which are full of chemicals, preservatives, and toxic metals, and are said to be fine (National Centre for Immunisation Research & Disease, 2013). The fact that vaccinations have saved lives is another major point. While there is no denying that vaccines have prevented thousands of deaths over the years, it doesn't mean that vaccines have fully prevent disease from happening. There are chances that a child with vaccination can still contract the disease which they were supposedly immunized against. The journal Vaccine covered vaccination failure, and the many reasons why vaccine may be compromised or deficient. Reasons include manufacturing issues, immunodeficiency, and non-effective strains of disease being used, amongst others (Heininger et al.).

The childhood vaccinations that have been created by scientists and researchers so far prove to be 90 percent to 99 percent effective in protecting children from specific disease. This statistic displays the power vaccines have in saving the lives of children. These accomplishments are clearly present and available for pro-vaccine individuals’ to use to strengthen their argument regarding the overall benefits of a regular immunization schedule for young children. A partner association to the United Nations Foundation, Shot@Life, remarks that “vaccines save 2.5 million children from preventable diseases every year, which equates to roughly 285 children saved every hour” ("Should Any Vaccines"). This statement puts into the perspective the extent