Public Health Issue Of Vaccinations

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.

The start of the vaccine was the year 1855 when the smallpox vaccines were mandatory for the school children. The state of Massachusetts passed the first U.S. law, mandating vaccination for the school children. This practice continues still today. Now in this modern age that the newborn baby receives 49 vaccines by the age of 6. Indeed, vaccines have saved a number of lives until today. This is one of the best action taken place for humanity. Moreover, the majority population doesn’t recognize in general that vaccines have toxins in them. For this reason, a certain population gets side effects through receiving vaccines. According to CDC data, there are about 30,000 cases of adverse reactions per year in 2015. The stories of those individuals injured by vaccines are incredibly moving. Accordingly, we need to take a look closer to this issue of our society.

In recent years there has been a movement against giving vaccines to children, that now has nearly 40% of parents in the United States following along. But it is due to these vaccines that most children today have never experienced diseases such as polio or the measles such as their grandparents have. Since they have not seen these diseases, parents feel it is unnecessary to vaccinate them for fear of developing the possible side effects or because of reports they cause autism. However, these vaccines are critical for eradicating these deadly infectious diseases, and are vitally needed to keep them under control. Which makes it absolutely necessary that children who wish to attend school have mandatory vaccinations against diseases such as polio and measles, without exception. Therefor this paper will show the benefits of getting vaccinated far out weigh the risks such as potentially saving your child 's life, protecting your families, and saving your family time and money from enduring prolonged hospital stays. That the risks of getting the diseases such disfigurement, paralysis, even death, or the very serious threat posed to people with medical exemptions like those who are immunocompromised are worse than the side effects of the vaccines. And yes, vaccines do have side effects, but not one of them is autism, and there is ample scientific evidence to back it up. It is vital to everyone that the current laws for mandatory vaccination of school age

“In 2011 alone, 1.5 million children died [worldwide] from diseases preventable by currently recommended vaccines” (“Immunization” 2). The magnitude of this tragedy is in part caused by the fact that some of those children simply weren’t reached by organizations like UNICEF, which aim to vaccinate children (“Immunization” 2). However, there are other reasons for the recent deaths and epidemics—such as the whooping cough epidemic of 2012, with 48,000 cases nationally in the United States—involving vaccine preventable diseases (McClay 1).

The vaccination of children is a common practice in the United States. It has helped prevent the spread of infectious diseases that has plagued our society since the dawn of time. Since the decline of those infectious diseases, the United States and other countries have gone to what is called “herd immunity,” which is a mandatory vaccination of a majority of children to protect the mass population from contracting those easily communicable diseases (Orenstein & Yang, 2015). However, as of late the numbers of unvaccinated children are going up. Why is this happening? Why are so many parents choosing not to vaccinate their children? To answer those questions one must look at the reason why childhood vaccinations are required and why people choose to have their children vaccinated. Many parents believe some vaccinations help build their children’s immune system, but for other parents vaccinations are looked at as a risk to their children’s health and well-being. Many studies have been conducted to compile information to quantify the need for mass vaccinations, but childhood vaccinations have become so common in today’s society, that it’s hard to find a large percentage of unvaccinated children to gather a significant amount of data from. This is because the groups of unvaccinated children are too small and wide spread to consistently provide relevant data. This has led to a very controversial debate between parents, medical professionals and government officials about

Vaccines are safer than ever and widely considered one of the greatest medical achievements of modern civilization. Childhood diseases, that were once a major problem, are now rare due to vaccinations. Immunizations are effectively changing the United States in so many ways. This includes: protecting others you care about, saving families time and money, and protecting future generations to come. Some citizens are objecting to vaccinations because of minor symptoms when they should really be looking at all the benefits they bring to us. The diseases are much worse than the potential side effects from the vaccines. People might not realize just what vaccine preventable-diseases can do. For instance, measles is fever, rash, pneumonia, brain infection and the leading cause of childhood blindness in the world. Some parents who do not want to vaccinate want to avoid anything that’s not natural for their kids. Tara Smith, associate professor of epidemiology at Kent State University, states, “If you want to do something natural, vaccination is far more natural that if your child ends up on a ventilator or needing antibiotics or if they end up with a brain infection so if you are trying to balance what’s the most natural way to take care of your child, I would say measles vaccine is pretty high up there” (Wallace, 1). In order to prevent re-occurring outbreaks, citizens must continue to get their vaccinations and make sure their children

Vaccinating children has become an issue many parents are taking personally and debating on a regular basis. Several parents vaccinate their children, but do they really know what they are vaccinating for? Most vaccines are necessary for children to gain immunity. Immunity from severe diseases that are part of our history, such as: Measles, Polio, Pertussis, and Diphtheria are essential to everyone. Vaccinating for these serious diseases is a must to keep children healthy. However, history of the vaccine issue has been an ongoing topic for many years. But, most parents have not questioned vaccines until recently. The issue has changed over time since people have become more easily persuaded against vaccines. This has parents wondering how effective they really are, and if they are safe enough to distribute to children. Not to mention, the childhood diseases in question have not been around in decades. Parents want to understand the importance of prevention in something thought to be long gone. Above all, the importance of vaccines is significant in this country, and to all who live here. Furthermore, avoiding vaccines will leave the United States vulnerable to serious diseases, in which were once eradicated. Vaccinations are crucial to the regulation and the annihilation of fatal infectious diseases, not to just the child receiving the vaccine, but to all in the community. Thus, vaccinations should be mandated for all children in the U.S.

In recent years, there has been a growing number of parents who refuse to get their children vaccinated. It appears this refusal to vaccinate stems from a fear over the safety of vaccines, and the effect that they will have on their child. This fear is perpetuated by opinion, false studies, and conspiracy, spread by bias media outlets as well as scientists who are incentivized to fabricate this misinformation. Unfortunately, this has led to pocketed outbreaks of diseases such as whooping cough and measles. These diseases were previously a thing of the past, that is, until recently. These outbreaks have led to the tragic, and untimely deaths of several children, and has put many other children at risk. Pediatrician, Matthew Daley, and epidemiologist,

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.

Why are vaccines important, especially for children and immune-compromised adults? Vaccination protects from serious illness and complications caused by vaccine-preventable diseases. Despite many efforts and medical advances, infectious diseases like measles, mumps, and whooping cough are still a threat and often there are no cures available for these diseases. Smallpox has been eradicated due to a vaccine and many expect that other terrible infectious diseases will be eliminated in the near future. This paper will explore (1) the history of vaccination, (2) pros and cons of vaccinations, and lastly (3) the future of vaccines.

Each year, more than 10 million vaccines are given to children under the age of 1, thus preventing approximately thirty three thousand deaths each year due to disease. (Center for Disease Control, 2012) I believe that the symptoms and complications from these diseases, if contracted, are far worse than the chance of a slight adverse reaction at the injection site. And the fact that some of these diseases have been nearly eradicated, prove the need to continue widespread inoculations. If people stop immunizing their children, these diseases could make a comeback, and unlike a hundred years ago when poor travel conditions limited the size of the outbreaks, today these diseases could spread very quickly throughout the world and devastate some third-world countries where medical services are limited. Dr. David Tayloe, a past President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, made the following statement during an April 2009 interview: “For viral illnesses such as polio and measles, we do not have antibiotics, and therefore, the vaccine is absolutely essential”.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of vaccinations in terms of both their perception and reality. As will be discussed, the majority of people are in favor of vaccinations and consider them important, however, this point of view, to a large extent, is based on opinion as opposed to fact. Indeed, the issue is not purely whether or not vaccinations are good or bad, but whether or not the public's perception of this question is in line with the scientific research. This is an important issue because, if the public has

Getting vaccinated helps tremendously to avoid getting life-threatening diseases. Immunizations not only spare children from horrible life-threatening diseases but also save lives. “In 1963 more than 400,000 Americans fell ill every year and thousands died” (Hand 1). When vaccines weren’t available at the time many as 100, 1 thousand and or 1 million people were very sick and dying. When vaccines arrived in 1967 Americans saw a tremendous change in the death toll, they saw 57,000 cases annually

During the 20th century, the advancement of immunizations was perhaps the greatest beneficial public health measure. Vaccine manufacturers’ work with society to develop safe and effective means of vaccinations to decrease both compliance with vaccinations, but the cost. Despite smaller public groups trying to go against the administration of vaccinations, causing suspicion and misconception, many people still trust the benefits of vaccinations in comparison to the risk of not receiving them. One of the biggest steps in allowing society, families, parents to understand the benefits and to build a trusting relationship with vaccinations, is to first and foremost educate them.

A vaccine can be described as a medical preparation which improves the action of the immune system against many microorganisms, and sickness. Vaccines classically resemble biological elements that originate from a microorganism that causes a disease. It is habitually made from mediators such as killed or debilitated microorganisms, a surface protein or a toxin. The action of this mediator is to help the immune system to identify microorganisms as foreign, kill them, and preserve a record of the invader to help the immune system recognize and terminate these microbes easier in a future outbreak. Vaccination procedures have been implemented into contemporary medicine to maintain the new generations of citizens without any type of exposure to dangerous waves of diseases such as tetanus, pox, meningitis, measles, Diphtheria, Pertussis, and many others. Nevertheless, an initiative against vaccination has arisen throughout the recent era due to the criticism and antagonism from many parents in the social media, which claim that vaccines can have dangerous effects on people. This has resulted in parents choosing not to vaccinate their children. The goal of this article is to examine three main points, first whether the antagonism exhibited by parents who are against vaccination is grounded on concrete scientific proves, second, what can be the significances of rejecting vaccination on the public, and third, how the government and health professionals could implement cleaver