Vaccination: Improving Public Health

Can you imagine life without vaccine? In the reading "Not Being Vaccinated is not Acceptable" by David Ropeik argues that we should all get vaccinated because it’s necessary. Vaccinations are designed to help us go through our daily everyday life. A vaccine is a modern type of medicine that has been added to the world early on in life to prevent us all from diseases. It is called a modern medicine because of how many lives it has saved throughout the world. The earliest documented examples of vaccination are in the 17th century from India and China, people infected with smallpox were used to protect against the diseases. Vaccine have become better, to where they are safer for the human body. Vaccinations protect you and everyone around you, saves public money, protects future generations and it’s reliable.

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).

Childhood vaccinations have not been a topic of controversy until recent times. Due to the recent outbreaks of diseases that were thought to be eliminated, people are now investigating vaccinations. State representatives and Congressional people have even gotten on the bandwagon to emphasize the importance of vaccinations. Many states already require children to be vaccinated before entering school, but states allow religious, medical, or personal exemptions. Getting rid of these exemptions would be beneficial to not only parents and children, but also to members of society. Having children vaccinated at a young age when the immune system can respond correctly to vaccines will benefit the future health of children. Children are more at danger at a younger age to catch infectious diseases. Vaccines are a safe way to prevent the child from getting sick. “Proponents say that vaccination is safe and one of the greatest health developments of the 20th century”

Sufficient data shows that vaccines has made a major improvement in decreasing suffering and death of infectious diseases and syndrome. And yet, despite the mounting evidence that reassure the safety and value of vaccination, public health continuous faces the dilemma over individual choice, autonomy and protection of the entire population at risk. Children in developing countries now have more access to vaccines, yet, the debate continue over the requirement, including mandates immunization during public health emergency and school-aged. This paper addresses the framework for policy and laws that are associated with immunization that protect our children from infectious diseases.

The idea of increasing the rate of vaccinating children at an early age during the twentieth century is what makes it unquestionable. A lot of diseases such as poliomyelitis, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B have been killing infants and causing a rising percentage in the infantile mortality. Some of the diseases such as polio, and diphtheria have been discarded completely while other diseases have not. However, vaccination has helped due to the fact that it has been contributing to decreasing the effect of the disease. For instance,

The down fall to these vaccinations are the side effects. Most of them are mild ones such as redness, soreness, or inflammation of the injection site. Some others may cause nausea, fever, or things on them lines, but the bottom line is that you’re not going to get a much more serious disease that could

Since their first introduction in the late 1700s, vaccinations have been a controversial topic of discussion. Vaccines are a safe and effective way to prevent the spread of disease. Although we can attribute the eradication and control of many diseases to vaccinations, there are still many Americans who are refusing to vaccinate their children based on their belief in a few unfounded fears. Most of these fears that the anti vaccine community believes are centered around the health risks involved with the practice of vaccinating. The majority of these fears have been disproven through extensive research. With the continued research and innovations of the

"In the United States, the childhood immunization schedule recommends that children receive approximately 15 vaccinations by 19 months of age, and it specifies ages for administration of each vaccination dose" (Luman, Barker, McCauley, & Drews-Botsch, 2005, p. 1367). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a vaccine is "a product that produces immunity therefore protecting the body from the disease" (Vaccines and Immunizations, 2015). Currently, there are many individuals advocating for and opposing the effects of the administration of vaccinations and immunizations in the United States. There are both legal and ethical issues surrounding the controversy, which include both deliberate and exogenous reasons not to vaccinate, and the mandatory nature that is required by many schooling districts and places of employment. Within this paper, I will discuss some legal implications surrounding vaccination, ethical debates that are current in the topic, as well as my point of view regarding immunizations and vaccinations.

Vaccinations are considered to be the greatest health development of the 20th century. Because of advancements in medicine, vaccinations are becoming a widespread medium in the prevention of disease. They have provided the eradication and immunity to many deadly diseases such as smallpox, polio and rubella. Although there is no law that mandates the vaccination of children, they are necessary to prevent the infliction of disease and harm. By making the decision to vaccinate their children, a parent has the potential to save their lives.

Immunizations were created to keep children and adults healthy and safe. Edward Jenner administered the world’s first vaccination known as the smallpox vaccine, which had killed millions of people over the centuries (). Jenner administered the vaccine on an eight year old boy who he exposed to the fluid of a cowpox blisters, the boy developed a blister which eventually went away. Jenner then exposed the boy to the smallpox disease and the boy did not get sick, this led to the smallpox vaccine and the drastic decline in the smallpox disease. Fast-forward three centuries later and the small pox diseases is eradicated do to people receiving the vaccine. Immunizations are extremely important to the world’s overall health. Babies and children are most vulnerable to disease because they are son young and their organs and bodies are growing at a rapid rate. It is important for children to be immunized against vaccine preventable diseases such as: rubella, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough), and a host of other diseases. High vaccination coverage has significantly reduced vaccine-preventable disease morbidity and mortality worldwide, especially among children (Baggs et. al., 2011). While some people focus on the cons of vaccinations, there are many pros to children receiving vaccinations.

This paper examines the controversy surrounding the public health issue of vaccinations in children. Following a careful review of the literature surrounding this issue, the possible reasons for and implications of having a large percentage of the population who remains unvaccinated are discussed. Possible interventions and purposed interventions for resolution of this problem are discussed and conclusions are drawn based on what it learned from the literature.

In contrast, a positive aspect of many people having vaccinations is herd immunity. Herd immunity is the occurrence where a large proportion of a specific population is vaccinated to provide them immunity, and as a result, it also gives some protection to the people of the population who have and yet developed immunity. This happens as the a large group of vaccinated individuals are protected from a virus and creates difficulty for the it to spread because there is only a small percentage of the population left that could be infected by the disease. It is a very crucial aspect of immunity for the community as the people who cannot receive vaccinations (i.e. people with weak immune systems, very young children and patients who are too ill)

Frequent vaccination has protected the unimmunized population throw the herd immunity resulting in lower childhood death rate and morbidity in the global population. However, parental trust in the safety and efficacy of the immunization programmes has been eroded by the various contradictory reports that emphasise the side effects of immunization and are ongoing barriers in accessing immunization hugely affect vaccination accomplishments. Vaccination is evidently identified as a greatest means of controlling infectious disease and it will continue to be the essential tool in controlling infection. Clearly, there is no doubt that immunization has hugely reduced the incidence and mortality of infection diseases in global context and should be continued and expanded until this disease have been eliminated completely. Therefore, future research must evaluate the claims against vaccination as quickly as possible to allay doubt spreading and policy makers should create new vaccination schedules which present evidence based statements regarding the safety and importance of

What is a vaccination? Why are they so important ? A vaccination is a live virus administered into the body to build immunity against deadly diseases. When a child is little and is exposed to a disease their bodies are not strong enough to fight it off and can make them very sick. Before vaccination came into play children would get diseases such as pertussis(whooping cough),polio,diphtheria, and tetanus, all of these being extremely deadly.Why would someone want to give a young child these deadly viruses? Studies have shown that no medicine is perfect but most childhood vaccines produce immunity about 90 - 100% of the time.(vaccines) Before vaccinations were invented people were only living 50-60 years, they now are living 20-25 years longer. How does this protect those who physically can not have vaccinations? Vaccinations protect those who can not be vaccinated, whether is be from a disease they are already fighting, chemo / radiation, and being allergic. All of those being reasons to hope others get their vaccinations. Vaccinations not only protect children from harmful diseases, but also those who can not be vaccinated.

To the world vaccinations are a wonderful thing, but are they really, great for us? Vaccinations have changed from when they first came about in the 1760’s, to now in the 21st century. Vaccinations are the administration of antigenic material to stimulate an individual’s immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a pathogen. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate, which is to improve, morbidity from infection. Vaccinations are the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases. But, do we ever stop and ask ourselves, what do vaccines really do for us? Do they protect us? What is in a vaccination? What are the side-effects? Can it cause life threatening diseases or issues for us? It has been known that vaccinations have massive side effects caused by the ingredients, have a connection with autism, and a connection with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, also known as SIDS.