Childhood Vaccination

The chances of your child getting a case of measles or chickenpox or whooping cough might be quite low today. But vaccinations are not just for protecting ourselves, and are not just for today. They also protect the people around us like some of whom may be unable to get certain vaccines, or might have failed to respond to a vaccine, or might be susceptible for other reasons. Vaccines also protect our children’s children and their children by keeping diseases that we have almost defeated from making a comeback. It is important to continue immunizing, even if cases of diseases are rare. If one or two cases of disease are introduced into a community where most people are not vaccinated, outbreaks will occur. In 2013, for example, several measles
outbreaks occurred around the country, including large outbreaks in New York City and Texas – mainly among groups with low vaccination rates. “If vaccination rates dropped to low levels nationally, diseases could become as common as they were before vaccines” (CDC). Imagine having to miss work repetitively due to your child being ill all the time. Parents who allow their children to be vaccinated to prevent diseases may have to miss less days at work, and children will miss less days of school. Missing days at work can cost less than a vaccine can. Some people are holding back on receiving vaccines due to low income. Research showed that vaccines cost less in time and money to obtain than infectious diseases cost in taking time off work to take care of people’s children. The centers for disease control made a study public in 2012 that said “children under five with the flu virus are contagious for about eight days, which cost their parents an average of 11 to 73 hours of wages, totaling to about $222-$1,456, adding $300-$4,000 in medical expenses. In order for parents to avoid this, they should be enforced to let their children get vaccinations to prevent them from illnesses and diseases.
Parents who oppose on vaccinating their children argue that the human body’s immune system is able to bare with most infections naturally, without the need for vaccines. While it’s true that natural immunity lasts longer in some cases than vaccine-induced immunity can, the risks of natural infection outweigh the risks of immunization for every recommended vaccine. For example, wild measles infection causes encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) for one in 1,000 infected individuals, and, for every 1,000 reported measles cases, two individuals die. The combination MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine, however, results in encephalitis or a severe allergic reaction only once in every million vaccinated individuals, while preventing measles infection. The benefits of vaccine-acquired immunity extraordinarily outweigh the serious risks of natural infection, even in cases where boosters are required to maintain immunity. Parents opposed to vaccines argue that vaccines can be dangerous because they could lead or have links to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Parents began to withdraw their children from getting vaccinated for mumps-measles-rubella (MMR) due to their thought of a possible connection between MMR. There was an investigation published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) that concluded that Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s who was a British physician who claimed to have found evidence that the MMR vaccine was linked to autism. Wakefield acted dishonestly and irresponsibly when conducting his research. This study was not able to be replicated by other labs causing scientists to question the accuracy of this study done by Wakefield. This study was known to be what had parents concerned and withdrawing their children from being vaccinated for MMR. Today, we are flooded with different kinds of technologies that can aid with determining the effectiveness of vaccines. In conclusion to Andrew Wakefield’s study, it was “shown to have no trace or correlation to autism” (Rao). One of the major underlying reasons that parents believed that the vaccine caused autism was because of an ingredient named Thimerosal. Thimerosal is “a mercury-based preservative used to prevent contamination of multidose vials of vaccines” (Centers for Disease Control). Research shows that thimerosal does not cause autism. “The evidence favors rejection of a casual relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism” (Centers for Disease Control). Due to the discredited paper done by Wakefield, several parents became fearful which then led to a sudden drop in the number of children who were getting vaccinated, by vaccines that prevented measles, mumps, and rubella. Autism speaks provides information reaffirming that vaccines do not cause autism, instead may actually decrease the risk. Autism speaks is an organization that has become the world’s leading autism science and advocacy site that dedicates its organization to fund research into causes of autism spectrum disorders; and advocating for the needs of individuals with autism and their families. A meta-analysis of ten studies involving more than 1.2 million children reaffirms that vaccines does not cause autism. The authors were from the University of Sydney, in Australia. Their findings were that there was no relationship between vaccination and autism, there was no relationship between vaccination and autism spectrum disorder, there was no relationship between measles, mumps, and rubella and that there was no relationship between autism and the ingredient thimerosal found in vaccines.
The Centers 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.
Disease rates are low in the United States today. But if we let ourselves become vulnerable by not vaccinating, a case that could touch off an outbreak of some disease that is currently under control is just a plane ride away. Being vaccinated can reduce the risk of infection by working with the body’s natural defenses to aid it to safely develop immunity to disease. Vaccines are designed to protect young children before they are likely to be exposed to potentially serious diseases. Young children are the ones most vulnerable to serious infections. Therefore, vaccinations should be enforced to increase human’s immune systems to fight against any disease. Most vaccine-preventable diseases are spread from person to person. If one person in a community gets an infectious disease, he can spread it to others who are not immune. But a person who is immune to a disease because she has been vaccinated can’t get that disease and can’t spread it to others. The more people who are vaccinated, the fewer opportunities a disease has to spread. Being vaccinated will allow children to remain safe, and will keep the community safe and healthy. Vaccines should be enforced because getting children vaccinated helps protect others in the community. Getting children to be vaccinated protects the community because people who have cancer are not able to receive certain vaccines, which can cause an outbreak in the community. Enforcing children to be vaccinated also helps the community stay safe, because image having a close neighbor who has a newborn baby, they are more susceptible because they are too young to be vaccinated. Enforcing vaccination drops the rate of contracting diseases amongst people. Vaccines are safe, and extremely effective. Therefore, vaccination should be enforced
amongst communities, to promote a safer environment.