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Vaccination Of The Anti Vaccination Movement

Decent Essays

Vaccination can be defined as a process which most commonly involves, “the insertion of a special material, called a vaccine, into a person’s body, usually by means of a sharp needle.” (Chatterjee, 2013). This active form of immunisation prevents approximately 2.5 million deaths every year, and is said to be the most effective weapon ever developed for the prevention of serious infectious diseases (Barnighausen, Bloom, Cafiero-Fonseca & O’Brien, 2014; Chatterjee, 2013). The anti-vaccination movement opposes the use of and enforcement of vaccines in the community, however does so with a lack of scientific reasoning. As such, it is not reasonable to believe in anti-vaccination. There is no denying that vaccination saves lives through …show more content…

Herd immunity is defined as, “the resistance of a group to invasion and spread of an infectious agent based on the resistance to infection of a high proportion of individual members of the group,” (Doroshenko & Halperin, 2007). Vaccinations have two effects, preventing the infection from developing in individuals, and preventing disease spreading in a vaccinated community. If the majority of a community is vaccinated, it lowers the probability of a disease agent spreading from an infected person to a susceptible one (Doroshenko & Halperin, 2007). This then protects and provides an immunological barrier to members of the community who have weak immune systems, such as babies and the elderly, as well as those who physically cannot be vaccinated due to allergies and other medical reasons. Considering the amount of lives that would be lost without vaccines, it is unreasonable to believe in anti-vaccination.
Vaccines have proven to be an effective way to eradicate disease, both economically and historically through simple and efficient processes, supporting why it is not reasonable to believe in anti-vaccination. Firstly, history clearly demonstrates the success of vaccines and according to Chatterjee (2013), vaccination has been instrumental in the worldwide eradication and control of twelve major infectious diseases, including smallpox, diphtheria, tetanus and measles. After the introduction of the

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