Childhood Vaccination Essay

Parents make sure their children get a proper diet, wear their bicycle helmet, and get enough sleep. Every parent wants to do what is best for their children and protect them from harm. No parent would allow their child to play with a loaded weapon, even with the safety on, and expect the best outcome. It would never happen. But it does. With every vaccine that is given, we are playing Russian roulette with our children’s lives.

As Ezekiel Emanuel, an American oncologist said, “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.” For millions of years diseases have plagued entire populations, and in the late 1700s, Edward Jenner invented the smallpox vaccination which brought about a new era of disease prevention. Vaccinations should be enforced because they save lives, rarely cause reactions, and have eliminated diseases.

“You have to follow your own heart when it comes to medical decision-making,” stated author and mother Emily Matchar when voicing her opinion on childhood vaccines. When it comes to vaccine parents are given the privilege to exempt their child based on medical, religious, or philosophical values, varying by state. This has allowed many to deviate from the original meaning of these exemptions and manipulate them as they see fit. This has helped to fuel the anti-vaccine movement that pushes for parents to fully decide which vaccines their child will receive without government regulations. Since 1998, the movement has harassed the public health community. With the introduction of incomplete, faulty research that “proved” Autism Spectrum Disorder

The Global Vaccine Action Plan has two great ambitions. First, to deliver vaccination to everybody. This is because, about 1.5 million children still die every year of diseases that can be prevented by the vaccines that humankind has developed. Secondly, to unleash vaccines’ vast future potential -because their impressive history is just the foundation stone of greater achievements to come. With these two great ambitions, the Global Vaccine Action Plan aims to make 2011-2020 the ‘Decade of Vaccines’ ( WHO, 2014).

Just like any other problem, it had to originate somewhere. The issue of infant vaccinations dates all the way back to 1796. It all started with Edward Jenner’s experiment. For instance, “In 1796,(Edward) Jenner conducted an experiment, scratching the arm of an 8-year-old boy named James Phipps using material from a cowpox sore in one of these dairymaids. Then he repeated the same experiment, but this time added a small amount of smallpox into the same child. He hoped that the procedure would immunize the child against the deadly smallpox infection. In fact, it did. Jenner’s experiment began the immunization age” ("History of Immunizations”). So, if it wasn't for Edward Jenner's experiments in 1796, there could be a possibility that vaccinations

Children come into the world defenseless and vulnerable. The lifelong health of a child begins with what type of defense can be built up. Childhood vaccine schedules are the first step in healthcare for children. A vaccine schedule is a calendar with a combination of vaccines at set intervals and ages for children to receive from birth to six years old *******. The recommended combination of vaccines on the schedule minimizes the amount of times a child needs to get vaccines. Maximizing the number of vaccines a child receives at a time guarantees by school age, the child will meet requirements for enrolling in school. The childhood vaccination schedule was created to be beneficial for children.

“Prevention is better than cure.” This common statement could not relate any better than it does with the controversy surrounding the morality, effectiveness, and safety of childhood immunizations. The major argument is whether or not laws should be established to declare vaccination mandatory for all children. “The US food and Drug administration (FDA) regulates all vaccines to ensure safety and effectiveness,” (ProCon.org, 2012) therefor there should not be any reason to risk the health of any child. Vaccinating our children not only ensures their safety but also that of their future to come.

The pros and cons of children immunization is my topic because being in the medical field it is my duty and responsibility to educate parents about the vaccinations which child is receiving and be able to explain to the parents what the vaccination is for and how to protect their child from illness or deadly diseases. According to MedlinePlus website the meaning of immunization (vaccination) is a way to trigger your immune system and prevent serious, life threatening diseases.17

We have all raised our eyebrows when the person sitting the row behind us starts coughing, and not just the “soda went down the wrong pipe” cough, but the real, mucus breaking, uncontrollable hacking. Likewise, many of us have also tried to not get too close to the person with the visibly red, irritated nose and the constant sniffling that comes with the absence of a tissue. As a society, we tend to be conscious of the threat of contracting a disease, but regardless of these common concerns, opposition to mandated vaccinations for school-attending children continue to be raised. The effectiveness and overall safety of vaccines have repeatedly been questioned by society (especially when it comes to vaccinating infants and young children), and some studies have possibly even shown the danger of certain vaccinations. However, upon closer examination, it is clear that vaccines have prevented more disease and have improved the overall health of the United States, and consequently, should—with few exceptions—continue to be mandated in our school system.

Childhood immunizations are extremely important in the world of healthcare. Therefore, when making economic evaluations as a leader, one must take into consideration how to maximize the benefits from healthcare spending, how to overcome regional variations in access, how to contain cost and manage demand, and lastly how to provide bargaining power with supplies of healthcare products (quote 1). In order to do so, especially with a topic such as childhood immunizations, the organization and its leader need to determine which is a better route, either cost benefit or cost-effectiveness analysis? In my opinion, the best route for this example would be cost benefit analysis, but there are some issues that could come into play. “Cost-benefit analysis

From saving money to saving lives, there are many benefits of vaccines. Believe it or not, but investing money in vaccines actually helps our economy. When a person thinks about it, it makes sense. For every vaccine you receive, the less likely you will have to pay medical expenses if you get sick. And that money adds up, “Every $1 invested in immunization returns an estimated $16 in health-care savings and increased economic productivity” (Bustreo par. 4). Using those statistics, every ten dollars a person spends on getting a flu vaccine potentially saves them one hundred-sixty dollars from doctor visits. Imagine what that could do in third world countries where hundreds of people are dying everyday from

The Center for Disease Control describes vaccines as the greatest development in public health since clean drinking water. For several decades, vaccines have saved countless lives and helped eradicate some fatal diseases. The push to do away with vaccines will not only endanger our youth, but our society as a whole. Vaccination is needed to maintain a healthy balance within our country. Vaccines provide the immunity that comes from a natural infection without the consequences of a natural infection. Vaccinations save an ever-growing amount of lives every year. The Center 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 (“Vaccine ProCon”).

Should parents vaccinate their children? Parents should vaccinate their children because it can keep them and other children healthy..“Worldwide, 242,000 children a year die from measles, but it used to be near one million. The deaths have dropped because of vaccination, a 68 percent decrease from 2000 to 2006”. (NewYorkTimes.com) “Children who are not vaccinated are unnecessarily susceptible to serious illnesses, they say, but also present a danger to children who have had their shots”. Written by Jennifer Steinhauer in 2008. Parents should vaccinate their children because vaccines can save many lives.

As time progressed, scientific innovations have led to the development of vaccines for various types of infectious diseases. Diseases that were once feared by the American public such as smallpox, whooping cough, and polio have now become rare. Smallpox has even been eradicated with the last naturally occurring case presenting itself in 1980. Vaccines were once welcomed with open arms by the citizens of the United States, but that all changed in the late 1990s when Dr. Andrew Wakefield and his collegues published a report the linked the MMR vaccine to autism. The MMR (measles, mumps, and rubuella) vaccine is usually administered to children 12 months and

During the 20th century, the infectious disease death rate decreased from 800/1000 deaths to less than 100/1000 deaths. This is mainly due to the introduction of immunisation. Vaccination has clearly prevented millions of deaths over the last century; nevertheless, the anti-vaccination movement has grown significantly in recent years. Some of the reasons why people join this movement include the belief that vaccines don’t actually work, the belief that vaccines are unnatural and therefore unhealthy and the belief that vaccines contain toxins that cause bodily damage and neuropsychiatric problems (eg. Autism). This essay will discredit the beliefs associated with the anti vaccination movement through infectious disease statistics,