Vaccines Are The Best Effective Preventative Tools Against Highly Infectious Disease?

The effectiveness and medical necessity of mandatory vaccinations is questionable. According to CDC mortality rate from diseases such as diphtheria, measles, and polio reduced drastically after vaccination became available for general public, but many studies show that vaccines

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.

Many infectious diseases that once quickly spread and easily killed have been controlled or eradicated due to vaccinations. The efficacy of vaccines in reducing morbidity and mortality, particularly in children, is undeniable. Per the World Health Organization, childhood vaccinations prevent approximately 2-3 million deaths per year worldwide (WHO, 2016). In the United States, the value of immunizations is clearly displayed by comparing pre-vaccine era morbidity/mortality rates to post-vaccine era in regards to vaccine-preventable diseases. For example, prior to the diphtheria vaccine in the 1920’s, 206,000 people annually contracted the disease resulting in 15,520 deaths (History of Vaccines, 2009). However, between 2004 and 2014, only

Polio, mumps, and diphtheria are a few of the diseases that have killed numerous amounts of people in the past. Yet, in today’s time, they are diseases people rarely hear about others dying from unless they are discussing the past. The reason for this is modern day vaccinations. Vaccinations are shots that help prevent against certain diseases. Vaccinations not only prevent diseases, but can also cause them to become nearly extinct in treated areas. One example of this would be the small pox vaccine, people were dying from this disease every day, and now you rarely, if ever, hear people talk about it. Although these vaccines are lifesaving, parents are becoming reluctant to provide these treatments for their children. For this reason, all children should be required to get particular vaccinations, unless they have certain medical conditions.

“Another area that has been linked to vaccination status is provider’s lack of knowledge about the indications for and contraindications to immunization” (MDH, 2008 p. 18). Providers must have knowledge about vaccines before educating patients about it. Patients or parents of the child may delay vaccination due to lack of education about vaccines. A massive amount of parents have concerns about “vaccines may actually be the cause of conditions such as autism, hyperactivity, diabetes, multiple sclerosis (MS), and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)” ( MDH, 2008 p. 18). Parents still believe this even though scientist have showned that side effects are not related to these

Although the negative claims behind anti-immunization stances are deceptive and discredited, some parents find it difficult to accept that vaccines are necessary and safe. Many of these reasons are due to personal or religious beliefs that have persuaded parents to bypass immunizations for their children. Consequently, health officials are seeing disquieting rises of diseases that are easily preventable. The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) has reported hundreds of measles cases in the United States in 2011, the largest number in 15 years (Ben-Joseph, Elana). Essentially, almost all of these cases were in individuals who had not received a vaccine shot. Also found in the article was that a great amount of the quarrel over the shots comes from a 1998 study that tried to connect autism to a type of vaccine that defends against measles. However, there has been no scientific evidence that a vaccine or a combination of any of the shots induces autism. Undoubtedly, the doctor that wrote the article, calling vaccines a “deliberate fraud” ,lost his license for not submitting any evidence of his claim and causing people to neglect shots for that year. Sadly, due to that article, 1 in 4 parents still believe that vaccines are

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).

Since the outbreak of measles in 2000, an increasing number of parents have refuse to get their child vaccinated. The majority of parents refuse to follow the vaccination schedule and requesting to receive a schedule differ than that of the American Academy of Pediatric. Only a small number of parents refuse to allow their children to receive all vaccinations. Some even want their children to only receive a certain number of vaccination (Hendrix, 2015).

The two vaccines that are most refused by parents are the MMR, and the Dtap vaccine. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention has all vaccine risks posted online to the public. The mild effects of MMR (fever, mild rash, and swelling glands) are worth having rather the actual disease. The severe risks of MMR seizure, temporary pain or stiffness in joints, and temporary low platelet count affect less than 4%. The Dtap vaccine was accused of causing Barbara Fisher’s son to develop autism. The most common conspiracy it is known for is causing autism in children. This however isn’t true according to the British Medical Journal Lancet children vaccinated or unvaccinated have the same risk of developing

Often debated, with strong convictions on each side, timely immunizations for children do more good then harm. Over the last few years, a phenomenon has come to our door steps. It used to be that all parents would immunize their children, without fail, because doctors told them to. In the past, the only non-immunized children were the children with health deficiencies. These children depended on the “herd” mentality. However, times are changing and parents are choosing to not immunize their children mainly based on these reasons: the possibility of them getting autism, parental lack of education about immunizations and lastly they believe that the illnesses that children are being immunized against are gone and immunizations are no longer needed.

Many parents stress over the choice of deciding whether or not to vaccinate their children. The reason why deciding to vaccinate children is so difficult is due to the wide range of myths and side effects that are connected with vaccinations. Myths spread to parents all over the United States that the diseases don’t even exist anymore, rumors of vaccinations weakening a child’s immune system, and the risk of a child becoming autistic due to thimerisol in vaccinations. Side effects also scare parents out of getting their children vaccinated like brain damage, seizures, or allergic reactions, but then parents are pulled back to the thought of the possibility of

Jenner. His experiments were extremely primal, however, and from that point on the vaccine production rate and quality rose exponentially. In 1809 the first United States law requiring vaccinations for smallpox was written after frequent outbreaks created great health and economic consequences.(Omer, 2011, 169-182). Before vaccines for children were created children died by the thousands from disease like in the 1920’s when diphtheria used to take on average 10,000 lives of children every year. The first vaccine as we have come to know them today emerged in 1914 with the first pertussis or whooping cough vaccine. This was followed by several Supreme Court decisions cementing a states right to create vaccination and school immunization laws regarding unvaccinated children and their ability to attend public and private schools. These decisions included the Jacobson v. Massachusetts decision of 1905 and a 1922 decision on a San Antonio, Texas case about a girl excluded from both public and private schools due to her lack of vaccination. Social call for change in the 1970’s called for the exclusion of unvaccinated children from schools to create quick improvement and controlled outbreak of a measles virus running rampant in the country. Thus after much legislative and social change on the subject of unvaccinated children’s exposure to

Throughout history, it has been shown that vaccines make a significant impact on the health of our communities and “administration of these vaccines led to dramatic reduction in the number of cases of, as well as deaths from smallpox, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, measles, mumps and preventable diseases” (Jacobson, 2012, p.36). Generally, those involved in campaigns for and research in these preventable diseases attribute vaccines for children as the main contributing factor to the overall decline in diseases such as measles, mumps, smallpox and pertussis (Jacobson, 2012). In the public health setting, there are many issues that threaten the health and safety of the public, not just in the local community but the nation and world-wide. One such issue, surfacing in public health, is the issue of vaccinations; those who choose to vaccinate, those who choose not to vaccinate and those who do not

Thesis Statement: Recently, the United States has seen a resurgence of many different diseases that we haven 't seen in decades. Much of this problem is caused by failure to get vaccinations, and a key step to solving the issue is education.

“Ninety percent of the 1,552 parents surveyed online said they strongly agree that getting vaccines, like MMR, Varicella, Meningococcal Conjugate, and HPV, can protect their children from diseases, but also said that they believe those same vaccines could have serious adverse effects. Indeed, 11.5% had refused at least one physician-recommended for their child or children” ( par. 2).