Children Should Receive Vaccinations

“You have the right to kill me, but you don't have the right to judge me. That's life. There's nobility in that. There's focus. It's genuine. It's crystal and it's pure and it's available to everybody, so just shut your traps and put down your McDonalds, your vaccines, your Us Weekly, your TMZ and the rest of it.” Charlie Sheen. Vaccines have became a big topic in the United States and whether children should have to get them. Everyone can have their own opinion, but they need to think about their children when they make decisions. Children should continue receiving vaccinations, so they can be better protected from the world around them.
First, an unquestionable reason children should receive vaccinations is because it saves their lives. According to the article “Vaccine Safety” “Immunizations prevent an estimated 2.5 million deaths each year.” It is comfortable to say that these kids needed to have these vaccinations. It is to the parent’s advantage to give their children the shots that doctors require. If children were not required to get these vaccinations would the parents give them the shots? Americans have the advantage of having access to all the tools to give vaccinations. However,
people in different countries lack access to vaccinations, so each year around 1.5 million children lose their lives to vaccine-preventable illnesses. This is a horrible number of deaths, especially since they are childrenś lives. In an article published on LiveScience by Bahar Gholipour, made known that “In 1994, the Center For Disease Control implemented a Vaccines for Children program.” Since then, the vaccination rate has soared around ninety percent preventing hospitalization and deaths.
Another, emphasis of why children should receive vaccinations is the medicine has been thoroughly tested and is not dangerous in the amounts provided. “Vaccines go through rigorous testing by global and national authorities. Years of testing, trials, and approval are required before vaccines become publicly available.” stated in the article “Vaccine Safety.” Years of testing means that these medicines are not just thrown into the world. Doctors could not legally require parents to give their children medicine that has not passed testing. Vaccines are safe because they help to strengthen the immune system not tear it down like the infections do. Doctors are confident throughout all the testing that has been ran that it is in the parent’s best interest to vaccinate their children as infants. Studies show that infants get exposed to more infections doing everyday tasks than are in vaccines. Proving the medicine is trustworthy is just one way the doctors appeal to a parent’s decision.
Likewise, vaccinations have not only eliminated diseases, but also has eradicated them.
Phenomenal acts happen every day, but not every day does a disease just disappear. Vaccines are a way to protect everyone and future generations. Smallpox was a disease that caused raised bumps to appear on the face and body of an infected person. They found a vaccination that worked to prevent people from getting infected with the disease. According to the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, “smallpox has been eradicated, allowing discontinuation of routine smallpox immunization globally.” Many of other diseases can become eradicated, but first they must expect everyone to receive the vaccination for the disease. That is why vaccinations are strongly recommended to any
parent.
On the other hand, vaccinations are a human made medicines, so there is still side effects to them. Majority of the side effects that get reported are just minor like a sore arm or redness of the injection site. However, some of the side effects are worse than others. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reports for all problems that have occurred with each vaccine. For example, the Influenza (inactivated) vaccine some mild problems include: fever, headache, itching, cough, etc. A more serious problem according to the CDC is, “There may be a small increased risk of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) after inactivated flu vaccine. This risk has been estimated at 1 or 2 additional cases per million people vaccinated. This is much lower than the risk of severe complications from flu, which can be prevented by flu vaccine.” It is outrageous that people think vaccines are not good for them, but there is no way to keep everything 100% perfect.
All in all, vaccines are the most effective way to keep children protected from the world around them. Vaccines save lives, they are safe, and they have not only eliminated diseases but has also eradicated some. In contrast, they do cause some side effects, but the side effects are less than the problems that the diseases cause. Doctors are confident that they are doing the right thing by requiring parents to vaccinate their children. It is magnificent how the body works and vaccinations only help strengthen the body. “Childhood vaccines are one of the great triumphs of modern medicine. Indeed, parents whose children are vaccinated no longer have to worry about their child's death or disability from whooping cough, polio, diphtheria, hepatitis, or a host of other infections.” Ezekiel Emanuel’s opinion on vaccinations.