Vaccination Should Be Mandatory Essay

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 like tuberculosis, pneumococcus, and many more. Even with great success and improvements with vaccinations, more than 3 million people die each year from

Parents face many different decisions when raising a child; some decisions are trivial, and others can be controversial. Whether or not to vaccinate a child is one of the most controversial choices. So controversial, in fact, that there is a political conversation of making immunizations a requirement. Many people support the movement of making vaccinations mandatory. Proponents argue that vaccines save lives, vaccine-preventable diseases have not been eradicated, and vaccines protect herd immunity. Many people also disagree with the possibility of required vaccinations. Opponents argue that vaccines cause harm, immunity by vaccinations is inferior to natural immunity, and government policies should not dictate personal medical choices.

Throughout the years, there have been many serious diseases that plagued the world, a number of which have been eradicated through the widespread administration of vaccinations. In the 1950s, the number of polio cases in the United States was at 58,000, and in 1988, this disease had affected 350,000 people (11 Facts About Polio). Because polio mainly affects children under the age of five, it became very important to parents that something was done to cure and protect their children. When the polio vaccine was created, doctors were able to administer it to people across America, eventually erasing the virus from the country. While the majority of parents in the United States agree that vaccinations should be mandatory for children (excluding certain children with medical conditions preventing vaccination), there are a growing number of parents choosing to take a stand against these rules. Vaccinations are important because when they are administered, the child becomes protected against the diseases, resulting in fewer cases of contraction. In order to protect the children and adults of the United States from many potentially life-threatening illnesses, vaccinations should be mandatory for every able-bodied child.

“Why should I get vaccinated? It is just a waste of time and money. I never got vaccinated before and never will.” That’s what one of my colleagues said when he was asked to get vaccinated during the outbreak of SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome, few years ago in Mongolia. Then, I had reasoned him that disease comes all of a sudden and it is more serious than he thinks. As reported on CDC, Centers for Disease Control, 40 percent of all American parents were refusing one or more vaccines for their children (Willrich 3). So it is clearly one of the most significant public health issues today. There are lots of people who hold the belief against vaccination because of several reasons. Even though there is a public notion that vaccine

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).

The United States of America is known to most as the Land of the Free for numerous reasons. In the United States of America Americans are granted multiple freedoms such as speech, religion, sexual orientation and the right to bear arms. Americans have financial freedoms, freedom to choose the best schools for their children and the freedom to choose which, if any, vaccinations are right for their children regardless of which school they choose. The public school system allows an exemption of vaccinations for medical, religious or philosophical reasons. The question that remains is, regardless of what the law says, is it safe for the general population to have unvaccinated children attending or socializing with others?

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.

I believe that vaccinations should be mandatory for younger children, so they are safe, reduce the risk of illness, and protect other people from contagious diseases. Children are more likely to get sick from being around other children at school or daycare. I think that all children should be protected. The best way to protect children is to make sure that they are vaccinated and receive yearly check-ups. Vaccines for children are very important to protect children from infections and is a safeguard for children’s health.

Most likely everyone has been vaccinated at some point in his or her life. Vaccinations were a very crucial mile stone in medical history. Even though they have saved thousands of lives not everyone agrees with them; some people even use their religion as a reason to be exempt from getting themselves or their children vaccinated. While religious reasons can exempt some from be vaccinated, vaccinations should be made mandatory for everyone because they will build people’s immunity against many diseases and viruses; one vaccination can save hundreds from infection, and not being vaccinated puts all people at risk for infections to many diseases. So, is one little vaccination really worth someone’s life?

Both children and adults unable to be vaccinated (for reasons such as having a compromised immune system) have a right to immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases. Immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases for an unvaccinated person is afforded through herd immunity, which is achieved when a certain percentage of the population is vaccinated (1). The right of a medical exemption to protection afforded by herd immunity may be considered to undermine the right to choose for parents and/or guardians; it is not a choice for the medical exemption to be unable to be vaccinated (1). However, some persons believe that vaccinations for diseases that are non-transmissible, such as tetanus, should indefinitely remain off the compulsory childhood vaccination schedule as the only person that benefits from that vaccine is the one receiving the vaccine (1). Remaining unvaccinated to a non-transmissible disease induces no harm to anyone other persons in the community or medical exemptions and a parent should reserve their right to non-compliance (1).

Over the years, there has been much controversy surrounding the subject of childhood vaccinations. With differing opinions, many are in favor about childhood vaccinations being required for children. Children vaccinations have been proven to be an effective means of preventing serious effects, including fatalities, from childhood illnesses yet there is still controversy over whether the risk of side effects from the vaccines outweighs the risk of contracting diseases. The belief behind mandatory vaccinations has been linked to people wanting vaccinations to be required for children because it will prevent the spread of childhood diseases, but there are still questions and concerns around why childhood vaccinations should be required. Questions surrounding this topic are: why should vaccines be required, are there any serious risks involved in vaccinating your child, and should children be turned away from school if they do not have vaccinations? There is also the question of should these vaccinations be mandatory or should this solely be a choice that the parents of the child should make? In order for us to be able to take our stance on the subject, we need to examine the answers to the question.

Many people think that vaccination for children is not important. It causes pain, but it is not true that it makes baby healthy. Some parents think that it is not necessary but they are wrong and they take a very big risk for their child. There are more benefits than harm by getting vaccines. Therefore, vaccines should be mandatory for children.

It is not the question of whether or not it could be done, but should it be done, which individuals never ask. Ever since modern science brought the ability to prevent catastrophic diseases through the use of vaccinations, a question has existed. The question of whether or not vaccinations should be required has lingered throughout society for many years. Vaccinations have prevented outbreaks of many diseases and saved countless lives. Many individuals and groups claim vaccinations are linked to autism; however, no scientific evidence has been found to support this claim. Vaccinations are proven to be extremely safe and effective. Parents who decide to not vaccinate their kids are putting their children’s lives at huge risk. Not vaccinating children is the same as letting children smoke, it opens the children up to many diseases and consequences. Smoking increases the risks of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. Not vaccinating

Imagine a bioterrorist infected the United States with smallpox, and even though there is a vaccine, thousands will still die just because it wasn’t mandatory to receive the vaccine. Vaccines have been used throughout history. The CDC, or the center for disease control, recommend getting different vaccines for children under 6. Some vaccines have almost completely eradicated the disease, like polio or smallpox. Vaccines have been used throughout American history. George Washington used the basic principle of vaccines to help build his soldiers immunity to smallpox. The question at hand is; should vaccines be mandatory? A vaccine is a shot meant to build up a person’s antibodies to a disease so they can become immune. Vaccines should be mandatory for two reasons, they have proven to be effective, and it is for the greater good.