Pros And Cons Of Vaccines

Vaccines – A Modern Safety Net (second draft)
Seeing that milkmaids, who dealt with cows on a daily basis, did not contract the rampant, and fatal smallpox disease, Edward Jenner set out to understand how this could be. Out of scientific curiosity, he took some fluid from a cowpox blister and inserted it into an eight-year-old little boy. He then exposed the little boy to the small pox disease a few days later. By exposing the little boy to a less fatal strain of the virus, the boy did not contract the horrendous small pox disease, just as he believed would happen. Jenner and his contemporaries did not understand why this could work, but the practice grew and spread in popularity. This first vaccine, invented in 1796, looked much different
According to an article written by Ozawa et al and published in Vaccine, vaccinations not only provide preventative protection against diseases, but can also do great things for the economy. When children and parents are inoculated, families end up saving a lot in expenses due to less frequent doctor visits. Parents can also go to work more days out of the year without having to call off due to sickness. Vaccines also promote better productivity at work, due to employees being healthier than their nonvaccinated peers. Ozawa and his team also analyzed data from other countries, all with different economic statuses and income levels. (Ozawa, Mirelman and Stack). Along with the economic benefits vaccines provide, infant mortality rates have lowered. According to the World Health Organization, more than eight million children died in 2009 who were under the age of five years old. Most of these deaths occurred in Africa and South-East Asia, and were caused by preventable infectious diseases. Vaccines are an effective health strategy that help young infants from becoming infected. Since physicians employed the use of vaccines for such diseases, the infant mortality rate has been significantly reduced and some of these diseases have even been eradicated completely (Ota, Idoko and Ogundare). Vaccines then, are an effective health strategy that
What many people failed to see about Andrew Wakefield was just how poorly his research had been conducted. Several years after publication, additional tests were run, and Andrew Wakefield’s work was discounted due to it being unethical. The Lancet retracted all that was published in Wakefield’s research and the British doctor was stripped of his title and license to practice medicine. Not only this, but many of the participants in the study, were at the same time involved in a lawsuit, claiming that vaccines had caused harm to the children. Wakefield himself was paid by the attorneys in charge of the cases. Additionally, five of the participants in the study had already shown developmental delays prior to receiving MMR