Vaccinations, Do They Protect Or Are They Harmful?

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? Parents with infants and young children have been tussling with this proverbial question for several decades now. With the advent of the internet and the World Wide Web, parents have been bombarded with a plethora of information about pros and cons of vaccines from all kinds of sources, some creditable, and some are not. To the non-scientific community, these conflicting information can create problems in the decision making process; thus, forcing parents to make the wrong choices and putting their offspring and others at risk. However, this article will attempt to address the importance of vaccinations, how vaccines work, why we should vaccinate, and why parents should not be afraid to vaccinate their offspring.

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 vaccinations of children are a cornerstone of the United States public health measures to protect people from a host of infectious diseases and possible death. Vaccines are beneficial to the greater good of the public health including your own as well as being a cost effective way to manage infectious diseases. Diseases that used to be common throughout this country and around the world can now be prevented by vaccination. These diseases include polio, measles, diphtheria, pertussis, rubella, mumps, tetanus, rotavirus, and haemophilus influenza type b (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014).

Illnesses and diseases continue to develop and spread constantly throughout the world. These harmful viruses have always had a huge impact on humanity. Viruses caused many deaths and outbreaks in the past and present because viruses can be passed on easily. Luckily today there is a way to prevent the spread of these viruses, which is vaccines. Vaccines are used to provide immunity against diseases. Once vaccines were introduced there were a lot of speculations and assumptions. There are many people who are for and against vaccines, but today there are many health professional, experts, doctors, and parents who believe that vaccination is a lifesaver. Vaccination is a controversial topic for many parents and guardians of children. Vaccines

This is because as we become more advanced disease can learn to adapt to vaccines and become stronger; therefore we must create different treatments. Vaccination protocols can save a child’s life. The World Health Organization stated, “…The greatest impacts on the world’s health are clean water and vaccines” (Why Immunise?", 2014). Medical Science advancements have made vaccines that have the ability to protect children for more diseases than ever before. Some deadly disease that killed thousands of children, such as measles or polio, has been practically eliminated due to vaccines. Vaccines not only protect the person being immunized, but they protect those around them. People who haven’t been vaccinated can contract diseases and contaminate children who are too young to be immunized. "Five Important Reasons to Vaccinate Your Child." states “Since 2010, there have been between 10,000 and 50,000 cases of whooping cough each year in the United States and about 10 to 20 babies, many of which were too young to be fully vaccinated, died each year.” Many medical organizations, such as the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, state that the current supply of vaccines is the safest in history (“Vaccine Safety.", 2015). Vaccines can contain some degree of harmful ingredients, but they are considered safe if used in the appropriate amount. Although vaccines can save children’s lives, they can sometimes cause

A vaccine is a weakened pathogen (bacteria) that is usually injected through a syringe into the blood to help your immune system recognize that disease and know how to fight it if you ever come in contact. Many fatal diseases that are being spread around the world because some people believe that these vaccines are risky. Many doctors and pediatricians believe that we should have all children immunized, because it would help tremendously by lowering the growing death rates and possibly eradicating these diseases in the future. Children should be vaccinated so diseases such as Polio, Ebola, and Measles can be controlled more effectively.

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

Today we seem to take in many conversations on whether mandatory vaccinations are good for our kids. With nearly 90 percentage parents in the U.S. understand the risk vs. benefit factor to be in favor too vaccinate, when handed the choice, about a 10 percent of parents delay or cut some shots with 1 percent that don’t vaccinate at all. (Pemberton, 2015) We see viruses from our past, which were heavily infected among our grandparents or parents ' time, such as poliomyelitis and measles, as children, appear in certain parts of the U.S., but have the feeling that these are isolated or have no significance. Many of these diseases have all but been eliminated, do with vaccinations. But the growing concern is that if we continue to choose not to vaccinate, the viruses we are straining to prevent will resurface, and may produce more potent forms of themselves. The part that grows not to vaccinate, fear or have queries on whether the risk is worth the benefit, and are usually comparing this to the narrations of others or some of the few examples that are perceived linked to side effects from receiving a vaccination. This only will lead to serious consequences, more so for infants, or young children, which could lead to be deadly. Mandatory vaccinations should be applied to all children because the importance it bears on our communities, the effect that vaccinations have, and the misplaced fears linked to vaccinations are vital to ensure that we live a healthier

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.

Should children be vaccinated? This is a question that has been a hot topic for some time now. All children should be vaccinated. We often ask “Why should we have our children vaccinated”? There are pros and cons to vaccinations. Vaccinations will reduce the risk of illness, provide a safer environment, and keep the parents from worry as much. In some cases, people think they cause more harm than anything.

Parents all across the United States have an issue with vaccinations for their children. Parents as of today do not have the option whether or not to immunize their children. These vaccinations are potentially harmful for children, but they also help and prevent life threatening illnesses. Parents should be allowed to choose to vaccinate their children because at times, the vaccine might harm the child, and because the parents simply just have right.

The Center for Disease Control describes vaccines as the greatest development in public health since clean drinking water. For several decades, vaccines have saved countless lives and helped eradicate some fatal diseases. The push to do away with vaccines will not only endanger our youth, but our society as a whole. Vaccination is needed to maintain a healthy balance within our country. Vaccines provide the immunity that comes from a natural infection without the consequences of a natural infection. Vaccinations save an ever-growing amount of lives every year. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that 732,000 American children were saved from death and 322 million cases of childhood illnesses were prevented between 1994 and 2014 due to vaccination (“Vaccine ProCon”).

Vaccines have been considered one of the greatest medical achievements, and are instrumental in health promotion. Vaccines play a major role in lowering the risk of exposure to diseases. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends 29 doses of 9 vaccines plus an annual flu vaccine for children ages 0 to six (CDC, 2017). There are twelve diseases that have been considered potentially dangerous that children are routinely vaccinated against. They include: Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Diptheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Polio, Hepatitis A and B, Pneumococcal disease, Varicella (Chicken Pox), and Haemophilus Influenza Type B (HIB disease). There is much debate about the safety of vaccinations. Those who oppose vaccinations believe that a child can

If you studied a history text book at some point in your life, then you have probably had heard of a couple of very deadly disease outbreaks that wiped millions from a population, such as the Black Death in the 14th century. More recently, in the 19th and 20th centuries diseases such as Diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, mumps, Yellow fever, and smallpox killed thousands of people every year. Today, those diseases are unfamiliar and uncommon, thanks to vaccinations. Vaccines are a preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. Most states mandate that children get 29 doses of nine vaccines to attend kindergarten. A lot of the controversy towards vaccines was sparked in 1998, when there was a speculation that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine was linked to autism. Although opponents will say that injecting vaccine ingredients into a child may cause harmful side effects, but vaccines should be required because they are actually safe and are one of the greatest health developments of the 20th century.

Vaccines protect the population from having a worldwide pandemic. Unvaccinated children and adults serve as a “reservoir for infection” and can pass on the diseases to people who are not immunized or can not be due to medical problems. (Heusel). This is very dangerous to society and can lead to numerous deaths. If a child does not obtain the vaccination and gets the disease, kids around them could contract it. An measles outbreak occurred in 2005 and 2008. In 2005, “an unvaccinated teenager who developed measles while visiting Romania