Vaccination Vs Herd Immunity

Between 1924 and 2013, vaccinations prevented 103 million cases of polio, measles, rubella, mumps, hepatitis A, diphtheria, and pertussis (Bailey). Vaccinating is “the process by which pathogenic cells are injected into a healthy person in an attempt to cause the body to develop antibodies to a particular virus or bacterium—successful creation of antibodies is referred to as immunity to the disease caused by the particular pathogen” (Introduction to Should Vaccinations be Mandatory). Popular conflicts regarding vaccination include the worry that this form of immunization isn’t natural, the idea that vaccination schedule for children in the U.S. takes away parents’ rights to make decisions for their children, and the concern that vaccinations aren’t safe for all children. Most doctors and scientists advocate for vaccinations in the name of herd immunity, protection against foreign diseases and prevention against pockets of disease outbreaks. Vaccinations should be mandatory for all children in the United States for who they are deemed safe and effective.

Vaccinations play a very large part in the prevention of diseases spreading. When enough people, 95% according to the CDC, have been vaccinated, the other 5% not vaccinated are protected through herd immunity (Kluger). This term is often used in discussion with

“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

Those who cannot be vaccinated or for whom vaccines are not effective rely on the concept of “herd immunity” to protect themselves; it is a social responsibility to get vaccinated in order to protect the rest of the population. There are many people in Canada who are completely unable to be vaccinated– people without a fully-functioning immune system, people undergoing chemotherapy treatment, people with HIV, newborn babies, and the elderly. However, when a certain portion of a community is immunized against a contagious disease, the other members of the community are protected against that disease because of “herd immunity”– if 95% of the population is vaccinated, the disease cannot spread

There appears to be an alarmingly large group of people that don’t mind exposing their children to serious harm; in recent years, many adults have decided against vaccinating their children. This is unusual, as vaccines are non-lethal, very safe protection for children; they are even cost-effective for their parents and are considerably safer for the entire family when these children are vaccinated routinely (Prosser, 1548). Jennifer Hamborsky of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention essentially describes vaccination as the administration of antigenic material to stimulate an individual 's immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a pathogen- and vaccination

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.

A simple trip to the doctor to get vaccinated can go a long way. Another reason people choose to get vaccinated is herd immunity. Herd immunity “is the idea that the vaccination level of a population must be 90 percent for the rest of the unvaccinated community to be protected against outbreaks of disease.” (vaccine 4/4). Herd immunity protects “the young, the old, and the sick - whose immune systems cannot withstand the dose of weakened virus in a vaccine.”

Herd immunity does offer some protection. Pertussis AKA whooping cough is a perfect example to explain how herd immunity helps, and why it's very much needed. Infants are unable to receive the whooping cough vaccine, their protection depends on that of others around them being vaccinated. Bailey points out that in 1976, cases of whooping cough cases had been as few as just over a thousand, but that number has since increased along side with the rising number of people not getting vaccinating which therefore indicates a possible connection. A common connection at that, the CDC releases statistics on these matters every year. Whooping cough isn't the only illness on the rise with corresponding lack of vaccinations. Bailey states that in the year prior to his writing his paper(2012) the cases of whooping cough were over 48 thousand and killed 18 infants(the CDC states it was actually more than 20). The author understands that yes, it's their right to not vaccinate, but you should still do it for the greater good of

The intended purpose of this presentation is to provide facts and scientific research that persuades the audience members regarding the use of vaccinations. My intention is that the audience will support the use of vaccinations and consider the facts before making decisions that affect the entire community. My central idea is that inaccurate data exists with regards to vaccination; instead, that vaccinations should be viewed as essential for protection of society, both from extreme illness as well as life threatening, and sometimes fatal, diseases.

When children who have been vaccinated do contract a disease, despite being vaccinated against it, they usually have milder symptoms with less serious complications than an un-vaccinated child that gets the same disease. It is true that some children who receive vaccinations may still become ill when exposed to other disease-ridden children. Research shows that 70-90% of the entire population must be vaccinated to attain “herd immunity”, “the resistance of a group to attack by a disease to which a large proportion of the members are immune.” (Farlex, 2012) When herd immunity is accomplished the spread of the disease can be averted throughout. If all parents were to take proper responsibilities and keep their children’s immunizations up-to-date, herd immunity would be achieved against all 16 of the major life threatening diseases.

Vaccines not only protect those who can immunise, but they also protect those who are not old enough or can’t vaccinate due to medical reasons. “Herd immunity is a form of immunity that occurs when the vaccination of a significant portion

Vaccines save lives; fear endangers them. Vaccinations have been used since the 18th century to cure various deadly diseases, from smallpox to the influenza virus. On a global level, vaccination is one of the few cost-effective medical measures that result in universal benefit. Yet there have always been those opposed to vaccinations because of possible side effects. With the increase in technology and the ability to share ideas in modern society the anti vaccine movement has flourished making the eradication of disease and safety of the public a difficult task. The anti-vaccine movement in the United States is one which brings about a very serious issue of safety. Vaccinations are put in place to protect people; they are administered by trained professionals who weigh the costs and benefits of vaccines. Yet there are still people out there who refuse to be vaccinated out of fear and therefore decide for themselves the effectiveness of vaccines. In order to ensure a safe society the public needs to be educated about vaccine in order to make a truly informed decision.

Another significant reason for the need to have a vaccinated populous is to promote the health of the herd as a whole. Some people argue that the government should not be part of personal medical decisions; these people would say that since we live in a free society, we should be able to choose what we do to our bodies as well as our children’s bodies. However; having an insufficient number of the population be vaccinated leads to health risks to the society as a whole. For instance, vaccines.org states

According to “The Value of Vaccination,” written by David E. Bloom, David Canning, and Mark Weston, “Vaccines are now widely regarded as an effective and cheap tool for improving health.” The contribution of vaccines is evident in the amount of lives that have been saved because of them. For more than fifty years, humans have put their health and safety, for their children and themselves, in the hands of immunizations because they are the most successful attempt against illnesses. People who refuse to use vaccines become a threat to the health around people they are with. According to “ Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy”, an article by Barry R. Bloom, Edgar Marcuse, and seth Mnookin, “ The source of nearly every [measles] outbreak was someone who was intentionally unvaccinated.” Purposely not vaccination oneself can lead to more outbreaks of a

Herd immunity refers to a means of the whole community is protected from diseases by immunization and thus provides an indirect protection for individuals who have not developed immunity. The entire population can obtain protection against communicable disease, when sufficiently high proportion of population is vaccinated. The infectious disease transmission would decrease, as the number of the population getting immunized increases. For example, In 2008, measles outbreak in the United States and In 2010, a pertussis outbreak in California led to the hospitalization of 455 infants and 10 deaths. So vaccination is important and a best way to put an end against communicable disease.