Vaccination Persuasive Essay

Vaccines are one of most successful and cost effective public health preventive tool in current century for preventing communicable diseases. According to UK Health Protection Agency (HPA), vaccination is the second most effective public health intervention worldwide. Immunization protects the individual as well the community from serious diseases. Since the implementation of immunization there has been a 95% reduction in the cases 4. According to WHO immunization prevented 2million deaths worldwide.

Vaccines are among the most affordable and successful public health tools for preventing disease, disability, and sometimes death. Not only do they protect a vaccinated individual from developing a potentially deadly disease, but they also lead to protecting an entire community by reducing the spread of infectious agents. Although vaccines have many beneficial factors to it, there are still some problems in using them. Many vaccines may include side effects that can lead to autism or even death. Vaccinations have many benefits including the prevention of certain diseases but they also can cause issues and be very riskful in using them to treat or prevent a disease. Some of these issues include the ethic dilemma behind the subject.

“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

Recently an anti-vaccination movement has sparked a worldwide discussion about both the safety of vaccines and the responsibility of people to vaccinate. Recent outbreaks of preventable diseases have caused both fear and anger from people on both sides of the issue. These same outbreaks have also served to cause significant political tension between those against vaccines, who do not want their right to choose compromised, and many proponents of vaccines, who are calling for mandatory vaccinations.

Vaccines have the potential to eradicate diseases. Vaccines completely destroyed smallpox in the United States. The last case of smallpox in the United States was in 1948. The author quotes the UNICEF who states, “There were 500 cases of polio in 2014 worldwide, down from 350,000

Public health is controversial in many cases because it requires balancing individual freedom and the greater good of society. Vaccinations can eliminate communicable diseases, but can be difficult to impose vaccinations upon individuals because of their sense of liberty. In this debate, there are those that support mandatory vaccinations to promote the health and wellbeing of the entire population and those that oppose mandatory vaccinations to protect themselves from any potential side effects. This controversy must be handled delicately by public health workers.

Many diseases have seen tremendously reduced cases since the synthesizing of their vaccinations. For instance, “More than 15,000 Americans died from diphtheria in 1921, before there was a vaccine. Only one case of diphtheria has been reported to CDC since 2004” (CDC.gov). Another example of this is “An epidemic of rubella (German measles) in 1964-65 infected 12½ million Americans, killed 2,000 babies, and caused 11,000 miscarriages. In 2012, 9 cases of rubella were reported to CDC” (CDC.gov). Vaccines are constantly being developed to help save lives from disease, and so far have saved millions of lives all over the world. Tetanus, mumps, and measles shots are major examples of life saving vaccines; death rates due to these diseases have decreased dramatically since their

Ethical concerns regarding pediatric vaccinations span several viewpoints including clinicians, policymakers and parents. A parent’s concern is to protect their children. Parents want to know more about how vaccines work - the risks and side effects, vaccine ingredients, and vaccine safety - before deciding to vaccinate a child. The responsibility of the medical professional is to protect the public while preserving the rights of the patient. The ethical issues concerning childhood immunization in the United States affect policy development and clinical practice. The question of whether to vaccinate or not is a hotly debated question. The proponents of vaccinations hold that without them horrible diseases would once again plague society and are required for the public good while opponents say vaccinations are personal and should therefore be decided individually. The ethical considerations of vaccinations provide complicated views.

There has been an ample amount of dispute over the morality, effectiveness and the safety of vaccination ever since the original smallpox vaccine over two centuries ago. Parents, teachers, children and health care specialists all have a vital stake in this debate. Parents believe they should have the right to make the decision on whether or not to vaccinate their children. While health care officials disagree, claiming that by not vaccinating, all children will be susceptible to the vaccine-preventable diseases. Megan Heimer discusses the risk of vaccinating a child and that it should not be mandatory in her article, “The Hate Debate”. Although Megan Heimer writes a relatively convincing argument, I strongly disagree. I believe that vaccination should be mandatory. It is a parents’ responsibility to protect our children and future generations from these preventable diseases.

Vaccinations can also completely eradicate virus and diseases all together. Smallpox, for example, has no mandatory vaccination because it is believed that it no longer exists. By 2012 most diseases such as mumps and rubella, have decreased by 99% because of vaccinations (Vaccine).

If enough people are vaccinated against a disease, herd immunity will protect others even if they cannot or will not get their shots. However, if participation in immunizations drops enough, the protection provided by herd immunity is broken. If more people get vaccinated, then the strength of the herd immunity also increases. If someone with a compromised immune system cannot get certain vaccines, then it is up to the immunity of the herd to protect that person from the disease. Only a few diseases, notably smallpox, have been completely eradicated by global vaccination campaigns, though others, like polio, are very close to being eliminated. If anti-vaccination advocates get their way these successes will never be repeated, and diseases the western world has mostly forgotten will be allowed to continue their existence and even become common

For the longest time, vaccines have been responsible for global and public health successes. Several include, the extinction of smallpox and the reduction of infections like the measles. Truthfully,

Immunization is the safest and most effective Public Health tool available for preventing disease and death, thanks to vaccinations many of the infectious diseases that whipped past generations such as Polio, Measles, Rubella, Diphtheria and Tetanus are rarely seen anymore.

To the average individual, the word ‘vaccination’ means to prevent illness. Vaccinations have many advantages; they allow us to be less susceptible to a variety of illnesses and diseases. Many individuals believe that vaccinations should not be mandatory. However, the benefits from vaccinations greatly outweigh the risks from side effects. The judgments are factual and ethical and are supported by testing and research findings from multiple sources.

Vaccinations are one of the modern era’s most notable medical advances. They have shaped our society in ways that are easily forgotten, eradicating diseases that once posed a threat to the United States and protect the world against ruthless diseases that kill mass amounts of people. Vaccinations not only protect individuals, but also society as a whole and should be required for everyone attending school, regardless of philosophical or religious beliefs. The only exception for not receiving vaccinations should be given to those who would suffer more harm than good as a result, such as cancer patients, those with weakened immune systems, or those with allergies to the ingredients.