One of the biggest controversies in an everyday American life, is the role of the US government and how involved it should be in our everyday lives. Currently, one of these hot button issues is vaccination. Vaccines have been one of the biggest public health campaigns since the early 1900’s. However, currently vaccines are under fire from naysayers and the questions that Americans are asking are, “Are vaccines safe?” and “Do I really need to get one?” In Maki Naro’s cartoon, ‘Vaccines Work, Here Are the Facts’ Naro uses rhetorical devices such as story telling, logos, and ethos in his cartoon to successfully show the audience that vaccines work and are safe to use. The first rhetorical device used in the cartoon is story telling. Naro shows the story of Edward Jenner, an English scientist, who used milkmaids to test and show the world that if a person is exposed to ‘A’ then ‘B’ will happen. Naro helps to depict to the reader that scientists have been experimenting and creating ways to vaccinate people since the late 1700’s. Naro uses the device of story telling to show the reader that because these ideas have been around for so many years, that they are safe to use and trust. The author wants to prove to the audience that the idea of vaccination did not just pop into someone’s head just to make money. Rather, to show that humans have been experimenting with the idea of vaccination for hundreds of years.
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Naro’s goal in using this device is to show that vaccines
The argument encompassing whether or not parents should vaccinate their children is ongoing. It is a very interesting matter to learn about and I possess some strong feelings about the case. This issue interests me because there are parents who don’t have their children vaccinated, and there are parents who do have them vaccinated. But all these parents share one particular quality: they all would like for their kids to be safe.
To persuade the audience of this argument she uses visuals, evidence and an appeal to worry or shock tactics. The visual, by Wayne Taylor, is of a young child getting a vaccination, this instils the idea that vaccines decrease the risk of diseases rather than increase the risk as many people believe. “increased risk of miscarriage or stillbirth… birth defects,” these phrases intend to instil a sense of worry or fear in the audience as they care about their families and other helpless children and babies who can’t fight against diseases without vaccinations.
Unfortunately, little progress has been made since then, as reports from 2015 show only 72.2 percent of U.S. children are fully vaccinated (KFF, 2017). Healthy People 2020 recommends a national goal of 80 percent to maintain herd immunity (Child Trends Databank, 2015). Despite the life-saving importance of immunization, these stagnant rates show that many mothers of U.S. children do not adhere to vaccination recommendations. These critics and skeptics of vaccines are a part of the anti-vaccination movement. Originating upon the discovery of the first vaccine in 1796, this movement has progressed for hundreds of years. Currently, through media and prominent anti-vax social figures, the public can easily be relayed messages of vaccine controversies rather than scientific facts. Falsehoods include perceived low risk of contracting vaccine-preventable diseases, “overloading” the child’s immune system, mercury in vaccines, reports of negative reactions after vaccination, and the infamously popular myth that vaccines cause autism (Mittenzwei, Morrison, & Williams,
Nonetheless, due to the new social media sites spreading and intensifying the already established decades of perceived negative health effects and widespread misinformation, the overall conversation regarding the issue has only continued to grow, and vaccines are still scrutinized greatly within public contention. With these new social media sites, a new kind of panic has grown, as Mark Largent, a professor at Michigan State University, addresses these issues in his novel, “Keep Out of Reach of Children.” He recognizes in his work that a part of the main arguments against vaccines are due to religious or philosophical reasons, or that they are unsafe. Parents argue that vaccines could potentially cause autism, other health defects, and could lead to the harm for their children (Navin). However, he quickly rejects the idea and
In today’s society, we believe that everything is up for debate, and that every topic can be opinionated. We like to have the power to make our own choices regardless of facts, just because we feel the pressure of being told what to do. We are lazy to learn the truth, but yet we are ready to choose sides and strongly argue about it. We see it every day on the news, in politics, sports, social media, online forums, school, etc. In his article, “Not Up for Debate: The Science Behind Vaccination”, published in September of 2015, Professor Aaron E. Carroll argues that the issue with vaccinations is more than just choosing to do it or not. Carroll jumps right into his discussion of the “Not up for debate” regarding people’s claims tying vaccines to autism, the choice not to, and officials backing them up. He explains how this argument stems from incorrect information, inadequate studies and research, and poor education about the facts and data about the vaccines, which leads to the stubborn belief that vaccinations should be banned.
Vaccination is a complex topic that has proven to be so contentious that most people have decided that they either support vaccination or oppose it, with neither side willing to even entertain the idea of meeting in the middle or finding common ground. On one side, those who oppose vaccinations do so for a variety of reasons, but most of all they do so because they think vaccines are dangerous or ineffective. Many of the opposed defend their anti-vaccination position by citing studies linking vaccines to autism and other debilitating side effects, or by voicing concerns over vaccines containing unsafe ingredients that may harm vaccinated children. Also questioned is the effectiveness of vaccines, if they are even needed, or even why vaccinating matters if those who are vaccinated are so confident that vaccinations work. On the other side of the fence, the people who support vaccinations believe that, due to the benefits of vaccines far outweighing any associated risks,
After reading and hearing about multiple news reports about parents refusing to vaccinate their children over the years, it might come as a surprise that American children actually receive more vaccinations than ever before due to government policies. Less than 0.5 percent of children receive no vaccines at all. In Vaccine Nation, Elena Conis argues that the widespread adherence to vaccination is as important of a study as vaccine resistance is. She turns her perspective on to the spread of vaccines in the postwar era when new vaccines targeted the “milder” diseases of childhood such as measles, mumps, and whopping cough. More recently, vaccines have been developed and promoted that protect against diseases that largely affect adults. Elena
This article largely appeals to pathos to make us feel compelled to vaccinate our children. Parker compares her perfectly healthy childhood with no vaccines to her children’s very healthy childhood with vaccines. which her children have rarely been sick. She uses her illnesses such as developing penicillin-resistant quinsy, the same disease that killed Queen Elizabeth, to appeal to the audience’s emotions. She then uses the children of anti-vaxxers to appear helpless for not having the choice to be
Throughout the article, Hendrix evaluates the possible arguments of parents who turn down opportunities to vaccinate their children and later discusses methods to evoke better communication. For example, Hendrix states, “Some parents do invoke the herd immunity argument as a reason not to vaccinate, suggesting that it is unnecessary that they expose their child to the risk of side effects from vaccination if everyone else is vaccinated to a level that prevents the spread of illnesses” (2). While her stance calls for policymakers and health officials to consider the reasoning behind parental opposition to vaccinations, she also refutes
In the Frontline episode The Vaccine War, a progressively distressful debate ensues among many scientists and doctors within the public health system and an
The current issue I have selected to discuss is vaccinations. In particular, I will be addressing the anti-vaccination movement that has gained popularity in recent years and the contributing biases that influenced its emergence. One event stands out at as a major contributing factor to the growth of the anti-vaccination movement, the 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield that was published by the English medical journal, Lancet. This study claimed to show a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. Even though it was just one small study, the media picked it up and it became hugely publicized.
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.
Wherever there is vaccination there is some number of people who oppose it. The first step to identifying a solution to a problem in understanding how it is caused. Public support for vaccinations had been at an all time high of 95%, before the anti-vaccine movement swept across the United States. The new anti-vaccine movement in the United States can be attributed to the wide use of technology to spread ideas,
More than ever vaccines are met with a high suspicions and very little education on the realities of vaccination success.
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