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Vaccines Mandatory Research Paper

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Should the United States Make All Vaccines Mandatory?
Since vaccines were invented 1924, vaccinations have prevented 103 million cases of polio, measles, rubella, mumps, hepatitis A, diphtheria, and pertussis (Welch, 2014, ¶10).
Polio went from deadly to non-existent when the vaccine for it was developed in 1955 (Welch, 2014, ¶11). Rubella went from 48,000 people a year and kill about 17, and now just infecting 17 with no fatalities. Prior to 1965, thousands of infants were born with Congenital Rubella Syndrome which caused birth defects such as hearing and vision loss, heart problems, congenital cataracts, liver and spleen damage, and mental disabilities because their mothers were infected with the rubella virus. In 2006, there was only one …show more content…

The Center for Disease Control estimates that 732,000 American children have been saved from death and about 322 million from vaccine-preventable diseases. The US Department of Health and Human Services states that vaccines are among the most effective healthcare innovations ever created (Vaccines ProCon, 2018). Vaccines are also much easier and cheaper to manufacture than it is to treat infectious diseases. There are 48 antigens give in 34 injections from birth to age six to prevent children from contracting these diseases (Welch, 2014). The usual state-mandated vaccines for children entering public school are for mumps, measles, rubella, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and varicella (chickenpox). All 50 states require children entering public school to be vaccinated; however all allow medical exemptions with 47 offering religious exemptions (except for California, Mississippi, and West Virginia), and 19 for philosophical reasons (Vaccines ProCon, …show more content…

Symptoms include high fever, cough, runny nose, and a rash, and can lead to pneumonia, hospitalization, or death. The infection can leave permanent damage to the brain and lungs. There is no antiviral medication for measles so it is easier to prevent it than to treat it. In 2016, the US had 70 confirmed cases of measles, mostly in unvaccinated people, and there were 73 confirmed cases of measles in unvaccinated children in Minnesota June 2017 alone (Howard, 2017, ¶2-3). Kristen Ehresmann, the director of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention, and Control Division at the State Department of Health said, “Many of the cases could have been prevented if people had gotten vaccinated” (Ehresmann,2017, ¶4). At least 8,250 people were exposed to the measles, mostly in schools, daycares, and healthcare facilities. There were a total of 21 hospitalizations (Howard, 2017, ¶6). A situation where vaccines did stop an outbreak was in 2005 when an 18-month-old Amish girl contracted polio and spread the disease to four other children who were too young to be vaccinated, but because the community had their vaccines, the herd immunity prevented a massive outbreak (Vaccine ProCon, 2018,

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