Essay On Vaccines Should Be Mandatory
Certain things that we encounter in life, have hidden dangers, while others only look scary at first glance and turn out to be quite positive. It is because of these types of things that many people become confused when it comes to making life altering decisions, such as being vaccinated. While many think of vaccines as harmful and dangerous, they are in fact safe and essential for stopping the spread of life threatening diseases, and therefore should be mandatory.
The first common mistake that those hesitant to vaccines make, is to spread them out over a period of time. However, as Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN states, spreading vaccines out over an extended length of time, “only leaves children more exposed and vulnerable to disease”(1). While spreading out vaccination times to reduce any risks may seem logical, it’s really more harmful than helpful as children have the possibility of exposure to viruses. The sooner that kids and adults alike, receive vaccines, the safer they are from harmful diseases and viruses. What’s the point in trying to prolong the inevitable? …show more content…
Scientist continue to search for solutions to the many problems that our growing and developing society faces today, like cures for cancer and disease.
Like stated in Should Vaccines Be Mandatory?, “Vaccines are the most effective tool yet devised for preventing contagious airborne diseases.” (Welch 2). Continuously washing one’s hands or coughing into one’s elbow are both temporary methods for avoiding many illnesses. Vaccines however, have much more lasting effects. It doesn’t make any sense to use a temporary fix to a problem that has an easily obtainable and definite solution. Anti-vaccinators can find vaccines for as long as they want, but at the end of the day vaccines are still the best solution for protection from and the prevention of spreading harmful diseases and viruses
alike.
Vaccines help save life and prevent unnecessary deaths each and every years. As quoted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, “Vaccines prevent 6 million deaths worldwide each year”(1). As humans continue to come in contact with diseases it is important and essential to have such things as vaccines that single handedly prevent millions of deaths every year. Knowing that out planet has seven billion people it may seem that 6 million deaths won’t have much of an effect on our overall population, but the fact of the matter is that all of these deaths are completely preventable. It is also interesting to state that, “while no one has ever died of the hepatitis B vaccine, every year 5,000 people die soon after being infected with the hepatitis B virus” (Merino 1-2). This startling statistic shows how the vaccines themselves are not what is deadly; it is the viruses. This growing number of deaths due to hepatitis B can be prevented through the use of vaccines. No matter how you look at it, there is much larger risk involved with not getting vaccinated as opposed to doing so.
Similar to most things on the market today, vaccines are not available without extensive research and proof that they are effective and safe for use. According to the article, The Benefits of Vaccination Outweigh the Risks, “Vaccines are only given to children after a long and careful review by a number of medical groups” (Merino 5) that include the Food and Drug Administration, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the Committee on Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians. After a new vaccine is introduced, it cannot simply be just “thrown up for sale”. By the time that a vaccine reaches a patient it has passed under the eyes of many highly trained doctors who have proved that a particular vaccine is beneficial to those receiving it.. The same article also points out that through the vaccine approval process, Vaccines are first proven to be safe and effective in animals, adults and then finally, babies. Vaccines are put through countless experiments and test to be proven safe before they even come in contact with our most defenseless. This process can take years to be fully approved, as a single flaw will send scientists and doctors back to the drawing board. Safety should not be a concern or cause of hesitation when it comes to vaccines and vaccination.
We are now learning that vaccines are not only important for those who receive them, but for the well-being of all. According to Should Vaccines be Mandatory, “In America today, it is estimated that about 10 million people are immunocompromised through no fault of their own… the unvaccinated inflict the negative externality of being possible vectors of disease, threatening those 10 million most vulnerable to contagion” (Welch 2). For those ten million immunocompromised, they are now relying on those who can be vaccinated to ensure that they will not be unfortunate in contracting viruses as well as diseases. Choosing to opt-out of getting vaccinated not only increases your chances of catching various diseases, but increase others’ chances as well. I think I can speak on behalf of the ten thousands and say that they are tired of people making the wrong decisions for them.
For many years now anti-vaccinators have claimed that vaccines containing mercury cause autism. In the late 1990s, British Doctor Andrew Wakefield linked autism and childhood vaccines. This is what the world learned and remembered about the “discovery”. What many failed to learn were the events that took place after Wakefield published his findings. 5 Myths Surrounding Vaccines-- And the Reality does a good job of showing what actually happened, like how, “most of his co-authors withdrew their names from the study after learning that he had been paid by a law firm that intended to sue vaccine manufacturers.” Another unknown to the truth of this story is that a medical journal came to the conclusion that all of the data that Wakefield used in his research to prove his case, were tampered with and altered. So, it was no surprise that in 2010, Wakefield lost his medical license. Any evidence that this myth about vaccines causing autism had, was proven invalid. To additionally demolish any still existing thought that there was a link between vaccines and autism, several world health groups conducted their own research and found that there is in fact no evidence that vaccines are a cause of autism. It is very hard to argue against such strong evidence pooled together as a collection of data from several reliable medical groups. Thus, this main “argument” that anti-vaccinators have been using for years, is completely based off of nothing more than a phony research project.
It is clear that vaccines, on the market today, are safe and effective for those who decide to vaccinate. Deciding to be vaccinated is one of those cases where actions speak much louder than words considering how it can have such lasting effects on more than one’s self. So then the question must be, why aren’t more people lining up to have their children vaccinated?
The first common mistake that those hesitant to vaccines make, is to spread them out over a period of time. However, as Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN states, spreading vaccines out over an extended length of time, “only leaves children more exposed and vulnerable to disease”(1). While spreading out vaccination times to reduce any risks may seem logical, it’s really more harmful than helpful as children have the possibility of exposure to viruses. The sooner that kids and adults alike, receive vaccines, the safer they are from harmful diseases and viruses. What’s the point in trying to prolong the inevitable? …show more content…
Scientist continue to search for solutions to the many problems that our growing and developing society faces today, like cures for cancer and disease.
Like stated in Should Vaccines Be Mandatory?, “Vaccines are the most effective tool yet devised for preventing contagious airborne diseases.” (Welch 2). Continuously washing one’s hands or coughing into one’s elbow are both temporary methods for avoiding many illnesses. Vaccines however, have much more lasting effects. It doesn’t make any sense to use a temporary fix to a problem that has an easily obtainable and definite solution. Anti-vaccinators can find vaccines for as long as they want, but at the end of the day vaccines are still the best solution for protection from and the prevention of spreading harmful diseases and viruses
alike.
Vaccines help save life and prevent unnecessary deaths each and every years. As quoted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, “Vaccines prevent 6 million deaths worldwide each year”(1). As humans continue to come in contact with diseases it is important and essential to have such things as vaccines that single handedly prevent millions of deaths every year. Knowing that out planet has seven billion people it may seem that 6 million deaths won’t have much of an effect on our overall population, but the fact of the matter is that all of these deaths are completely preventable. It is also interesting to state that, “while no one has ever died of the hepatitis B vaccine, every year 5,000 people die soon after being infected with the hepatitis B virus” (Merino 1-2). This startling statistic shows how the vaccines themselves are not what is deadly; it is the viruses. This growing number of deaths due to hepatitis B can be prevented through the use of vaccines. No matter how you look at it, there is much larger risk involved with not getting vaccinated as opposed to doing so.
Similar to most things on the market today, vaccines are not available without extensive research and proof that they are effective and safe for use. According to the article, The Benefits of Vaccination Outweigh the Risks, “Vaccines are only given to children after a long and careful review by a number of medical groups” (Merino 5) that include the Food and Drug Administration, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the Committee on Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians. After a new vaccine is introduced, it cannot simply be just “thrown up for sale”. By the time that a vaccine reaches a patient it has passed under the eyes of many highly trained doctors who have proved that a particular vaccine is beneficial to those receiving it.. The same article also points out that through the vaccine approval process, Vaccines are first proven to be safe and effective in animals, adults and then finally, babies. Vaccines are put through countless experiments and test to be proven safe before they even come in contact with our most defenseless. This process can take years to be fully approved, as a single flaw will send scientists and doctors back to the drawing board. Safety should not be a concern or cause of hesitation when it comes to vaccines and vaccination.
We are now learning that vaccines are not only important for those who receive them, but for the well-being of all. According to Should Vaccines be Mandatory, “In America today, it is estimated that about 10 million people are immunocompromised through no fault of their own… the unvaccinated inflict the negative externality of being possible vectors of disease, threatening those 10 million most vulnerable to contagion” (Welch 2). For those ten million immunocompromised, they are now relying on those who can be vaccinated to ensure that they will not be unfortunate in contracting viruses as well as diseases. Choosing to opt-out of getting vaccinated not only increases your chances of catching various diseases, but increase others’ chances as well. I think I can speak on behalf of the ten thousands and say that they are tired of people making the wrong decisions for them.
For many years now anti-vaccinators have claimed that vaccines containing mercury cause autism. In the late 1990s, British Doctor Andrew Wakefield linked autism and childhood vaccines. This is what the world learned and remembered about the “discovery”. What many failed to learn were the events that took place after Wakefield published his findings. 5 Myths Surrounding Vaccines-- And the Reality does a good job of showing what actually happened, like how, “most of his co-authors withdrew their names from the study after learning that he had been paid by a law firm that intended to sue vaccine manufacturers.” Another unknown to the truth of this story is that a medical journal came to the conclusion that all of the data that Wakefield used in his research to prove his case, were tampered with and altered. So, it was no surprise that in 2010, Wakefield lost his medical license. Any evidence that this myth about vaccines causing autism had, was proven invalid. To additionally demolish any still existing thought that there was a link between vaccines and autism, several world health groups conducted their own research and found that there is in fact no evidence that vaccines are a cause of autism. It is very hard to argue against such strong evidence pooled together as a collection of data from several reliable medical groups. Thus, this main “argument” that anti-vaccinators have been using for years, is completely based off of nothing more than a phony research project.
It is clear that vaccines, on the market today, are safe and effective for those who decide to vaccinate. Deciding to be vaccinated is one of those cases where actions speak much louder than words considering how it can have such lasting effects on more than one’s self. So then the question must be, why aren’t more people lining up to have their children vaccinated?