Anti Vaccination Argumentative Essay

There is a lot of debate about whether if vaccines should be or should not be mandatory for all children or if their use should be up to the parents of the child. Part of the issue for many parents it the sheer volume of vaccines mandated by various government agencies. Based on the recommendations of these organizations, a child can receive “no less than 69 doses of 16 vaccines” (children-vaccines). With so many vaccines being given many parents question why so many children are sick or have various developmental or learning disabilities. In fact, one child out of 6 has a learning disability, one out of ten is asthmatic, and one out of 50 has some degree of autism. This means that almost 30% of children in the US have a significant disability

While a majority of people receive vaccines an increasing number of people are making the decision for themselves or children to reject a vaccine, this is compromising the concept of herd immunity. Herd immunity occurs when a large number of a community are vaccinated, which in case of an outbreak isolates the spread of the disease. As the majority of a community are unable to contract a disease, it prevents the disease from spreading which in turn protects people such as infants, pregnant women and those with weaker immune systems from contracting the disease. Considering the increasing number of people rejecting vaccines, the herd immunity principle could be threatened resulting in an increase of outbreaks; only those who have received

Schools and other facilities have strict, mandatory vaccinations that everyone must have to be permitted in the facility. However, as soon as vaccines are seen as being less important than they truly are: lenience on these regulations will start. People will be granted viability for their unreasonable excuses to not get vaccinated. Then, how can some people have to get vaccinated when others don’t? Exceptions will eventually lead to completely new definitions of the rules. Schools and public facilities will be carriers of completely preventable diseases all due to shear laziness. I do not say these things to scare you. I say these things to move you with fear into doing something that is undeniably right and honestly not that much of an

The disease has been an enemy of a human ever since it first appeared. In fact, humankind has been at war with the disease for most of history, often at the losing end. However, the principle of immunization equalized this adversarial relationship. The concept of vaccination has been one of the most significant medical advancements in history because it has prevented the onset of deadly diseases, has eradicated previously malignant maladies, and has improved human life by removing fear of acquiring such contagious afflictions.

One hot topic of discussion for mandated medical treatment that is subjected to much debate is the requirement of vaccinations for school children and those who work in the medical field. Often used as an argument is a now-debunked study linking vaccines to autism, but no matter how many times the medical community proves this study was fraudulent, there are many who refuse vaccinations for their children. As a result, previously eradicated diseases are coming back, such as measles. Another issue within this controversy is the need for herd immunity. Herd immunity is when those who cannot be vaccinated are still immune because all of their peers and community are vaccinated and free of harmful diseases like polio, measles, etc. Parents of children with cancer, small children too young to be vaccinated, and children with immune disorders rely on those around their children to be immune because they cannot vaccinate their children. As a country, the conservative legislation seems to favor the

There is extremely large numbers of vaccinations for many diseases and illnesses. By getting a child vaccinated early in their life, gives them a greater chance to not accumulate these illnesses. The American Academy of Pediatrics stated that "most childhood vaccines are 90%-99% effective in preventing disease."(Vaccines) This means that there is only a 1%-10% chance they won’t help or work at all. Most parents rather give their children a chance at a strong immune system rather than not trying at all. The Centers for Disease Control estimated that 732,000 American children were saved from death and 322 million cases of childhood illnesses were prevented between the years 1994 and 2014 due to being vaccinated.(Vaccines) In a span of 20 years vaccinations have saved over more than half a million lives.

In Nigeria, politicians and religious leaders campaigned against the polio vaccine with claims that it could cause HIV, sterilize patients, and cause cancer. In only one year, the number of reported cases of polio jumped from 355 to 782. Similar fears about the supposed autism link are spread by some high profile celebrities and news networks in the US. Scientists talk about a concept called “community immunity”, more commonly known as herd immunity. This is where so much of the population is immunized, that even those who have not been inoculated, or whose immunity is not as strong as others get some protection by way of the whole of the population having such strong resistance to the contagion. This limits the amount of people that the disease can spread to. However, if immunization rates drop then it jeopardizes this system by creating weak links in this chain, creating a public health problem for the community at large. This is part of why mandatory vaccinations are so important; our society is dependent on most people being vaccinated for this kind of protection to

Vaccines have successfully eradicated smallpox and greatly reduced the occurrence and risk of other infectious diseases such as polio, measles and many more. This leads people to question, why there is such a large controversy over the usage of vaccines in the 21st century? The ongoing battle between humans and infectious disease has been going on since the beginning of history and it wasn't until the discovery of vaccines, that millions of lives each year are saved worldwide. These vaccines are used to treat many infectious diseases and can be delivered in multiple different ways. Although there are many benefits of vaccinations many people around the globe claim that they can be harmful, resulting in many unvaccinated children (Campbell). This concerns health officials because unvaccinated children can pose a threat to others, in some cases even spreading to others who are vaccinated. There are many different claims over the use of vaccines including that it could be linked to autism and other defects in young children. Although there is no clear evidence to prove this, anti-vaccinators have created an opposing view behind many vaccination facts and related events. Many parents are also concerned with the number of shots, the frequency and the possible unintended negative effects of vaccines that their children receive (Largent). This leaves the other side of the spectrum to ask, how does a successful instrument of public health, that is cheap and saved millions of lives, become a target for such a large debate? Research and statistics show that vaccines prove to be beneficial to the public health of many, by saving lives and treating numerous infectious diseases, with no evidence that mandatory vaccines are linked to autism and little evidence that they cause other negative effects.

The earliest known existence of vaccines dates back to sometime between 900-1000 AD. This early primitive form of vaccine known as variolation or inoculation was created by the Chinese for the treatment of smallpox (Bushak). Timeline history shows through the centuries many vaccines proved to be successful in treating various diseases. In today’s society there are many controversies surrounding vaccines and their potential side effects. These concerns are unfounded due to the extensive research that has been done to debunk some of these theories. While all vaccines have pros and cons, the benefits outweigh the risks and research proves

Herd immunity is defined as, “the resistance of a group to invasion and spread of an infectious agent based on the resistance to infection of a high proportion of individual members of the group,” (Doroshenko & Halperin, 2007). Vaccinations have two effects, preventing the infection from developing in individuals, and preventing disease spreading in a vaccinated community. If the majority of a community is vaccinated, it lowers the probability of a disease agent spreading from an infected person to a susceptible one (Doroshenko & Halperin, 2007). This then protects and provides an immunological barrier to members of the community who have weak immune systems, such as babies and the elderly, as well as those who physically cannot be vaccinated due to allergies and other medical reasons. Considering the amount of lives that would be lost without vaccines, it is unreasonable to believe in anti-vaccination.

As of 2013, 95% of children were vaccinated against preventable diseases. The other 5% are unvaccinated and still growing in some states, such as Oregon with more than 6% (CDC). Idaho, Michigan, and Vermont have unvaccinated children anywhere from 5.1% to 6% (CDC). For the safety and health of future generations to come, parents should highly consider using available vaccinations for their children due to not only the fact that they create herd immunity for those who are incapable of receiving vaccines but also because of their ability to prevent children from contracting diseases and have shown qualities that have a chance to eradicate some of

Ever since the first discovery of vaccines in 1796 by Edward Jenner, which was the treatment found for smallpox, the world had expanded and promoted the idea of vaccines being used to assist the human body’s immune system to defend the body from harmful illnesses and diseases. Vaccines are internationally used treatments that miraculously provide immunity for the population from a variety of harmful diseases, such as chickenpox, Hepatitis B and HPV. There are both several positive and negative implications of vaccines that can be biological, social and/or economical. However, there is a stir of controversy over whether to vaccinated or to use alternative methods for for your health. One of the most bizarre alternative events would be the chickenpox parties, which began a new vaccination debate on whether people should rely on natural immunity or the adaptive immunity in the form of vaccinations.

Ever since the introduction of vaccinations by Edward Jenner in 1796, vaccinations have been a highly debated topic. Jenner was the first US citizen to propose a vaccination method for the small pox disease. He proposed that patients be infected with tissue and fluid from a cowpox blister. Jenner noticed that people who were exposed to cowpox due to them working with cows often, did not contract smallpox at a later time. His first test subject was a young boy who was inoculated with tissue from a cowpox lesion. Aside from a mild fever, the boy had no other adverse reactions. When he was inoculated with a dose of smallpox lesion 2 months later, the boy was perfectly fine and did not contract smallpox. Even then, Jenner was obviously met with skepticism and dubiousness. Some reasons for this skepticism included religious and sanitary reasons. More notably, it was until the late 1800s when the amount of controversy about vaccines increased dramatically. In 1885, Louis Pasteur expanded on Jenner’s work by creating a vaccine for rabies, this time using an attenuated, weaker form. Pasteur is more commonly known for his process of pasteurizing milk by heating it to destroy the bacteria. Another notable vaccine was created in 1955 by Jonas Edward Salk. Salk helped create the vaccine for polio. In my next paragraph, I will discuss how vaccinations work.

For example, 95% of people in a community get vaccinated and the other 5% do not due to medical issue, that 5% will be protected from the virus due to herd immunity. The 95% will act like a blanket protecting the 10% who can not protect themselves.

Every year, the rate of deaths of preventable illnesses, goes up. Every year, millions of americans became deathly ill, from a virus that is preventable from a simple vaccination. There are americans that believe that vaccinations are evil, they do more harm than good, the fear of the unknown side affects, autism , and damage/stress to our immune system. Then there are others who believe vaccinations keep us healthy, helps us fight off anything that can harm us, and that protect us from virus our bodies can’t fight off. According to Shot@Life, a United Nations Foundation partner organization, vaccines save 2.5 million children from preventable diseases every year [44], which equates to roughly 285 children saved every hour. 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. Virus that are from the late 1950s, are making their way back into our lives because there are so many americans that do not vaccinate. Measles is the most popular virus that came back. In 2014, there was a measle outbreak in 15 states,since then the number of states and cases reported, increases. In 2014,667 cases of measles, a virus that is preventable from a simple vaccinations. Another would be ; Mumps, a illness that has 99%