The Importance Of Vaccines

Controversy concerning the risks of vaccinations will always exist. As is the nature of a preventative intervention, it is difficult to rationalize giving a completely healthy child an injection that is known to have varying degrees of sides affects5. Additionally, these injections are to provide immunity to children for diseases that have an extremely low risk of circulating within a population. Since these vaccines have been able to protect so many individuals from experiencing these dangerous infections, most parents do not even have personal experiences regarding the impact of these diseases. As such, many parents do not see the vaccine-preventable disease as a threat to their child. This often causes parents to not fully understand the risk their child has for contracting a disease and the subsequent danger of a vaccine-preventable disease infection verses the potential side effect of a vaccine which is normally only mild to moderate discomfort for their child15.

For many years, there has been a controversy about whether or not vaccinations should be mandated for everyone. In the United States, many diseases such as polio, diphtheria, measles, and whooping cough used to be extremely common, until vaccinations came around and started preventing these diseases. The main point for vaccines is to prepare a person’s immune system for any possible attack of a disease that comes in the future; a person’s body will be prepared to fight off the disease with the vaccine (“Basics”). Vaccines have the ability to prevent many cases of these diseases in advanced, but there are people who think vaccines are unnatural and should not be required for their children. It is said that immunity in child vaccines are about 90%-100%, which is an increase over the past few years (“Childhood”). Although many Americans believe that vaccines are unsafe and cause autism in children, vaccinations for children should be mandatory because they can save a child’s life, create herd immunity in a community, and they have been proven safe/cost-effective.

There are many reasons why vaccines are important. I will go over three of them. Vaccines will keep you healthy, diseases have not gone away and the people around you need you.

From Grandpa Max to baby Sophia, everyone needs vaccinations. Vaccines protect people from developing dangerous diseases like pneumonia, measles, and the flu. Many people have forgotten the devastating effects of these disease but they still exist, and your unvaccinated loved ones are at risk. This August is National Immunization Awareness Month and the perfect time to discuss the benefits of vaccines and how to stay up to date with your immunizations.

Vaccination is a primary prevention of disease and has been strongly integrated into modern medicine. For generations, epidemics of measles, whooping cough or polio have been largely nonexistent from populations across the globe. However, there are still many parents who choose not to vaccinate their children and adults who are unaware of or unable to access vaccines that prevent infectious diseases. There are college students still being exposed to meningitis and even some people in the healthcare industry not staying current and questioning the efficacy of them. The purpose of this paper is to present some facts about vaccinations/immunizations, barriers to obtaining them and suggestions from research on how to overcome those barriers from a community health perspective.

This story begins in a world, filled with diseases causing death and illnesses, with no way to stop or control it. Men, woman and children were dying in the most horrific way and no one knew how to stop it. That is, until the heroic act and discovery of vaccinations. People where now being protected from this onslaught, and slowly, these diseases stopped emerging amongst populations. However, if the administration of vaccinations were stopped, death, disease, and illnesses would thrive and be re-introduced into the world. This story does not have to repeat itself, as with all the advances in science and technology, we have the resources to put a stop to these dreadful diseases and help save millions lives.

Almost everyone in the world cares and wants the best for children, whether it be their own or not. Most people also want the best for society. But the question is, why would some of these same people deliberately cause the suffering of children and jeopardize society just because they do not believe in vaccination? Vaccinations help save lives by building immunity to deadly diseases, but people are willing to risk lives just because their political beliefs or religious beliefs or skepticism keeps them from vaccinating their children. To make sure everyone in the community is safe from certain diseases, the government needs to make most vaccinations mandatory for every child. There are already a few state mandates regarding vaccinations

For some, going to get a vaccination can be a simple task. For others it can be the last thing in the world to do. Just waiting patiently to get a sharp and thin object to pierce them can really mess with some people's minds. In other words, they have belonephobia, which is the fear of needles. Though being scared, it can be very dangerous to not get the vaccination you need.

“Childhood vaccines protect children from a variety of serious or potentially fatal diseases, including diphtheria, measles, meningitis, polio, tetanus and whooping cough. If these diseases seem uncommon — or even unheard of — it's usually because these vaccines are doing their job”(mayoclinic.org). For century’s diseases have ravaged the human population. To prevent these diseases doctors have discovered a way to prevent these diseases called vaccines. Some examples of these are the Polio, chicken pox, hepatitis A vaccines. However, in the past year one of the most recent arguments has been whether or not parents should vaccinate their children.

Throughout this essay, I will support that it is necessary and important for vaccinations to be given to all individuals who are able to receive them. First, I will give some background into what vaccines are and how they work to protect humans from disease. After that, I am going to state my argument for why vaccinations should be mandatory for certain people to receive and will display why vaccinations are greatly important. Then, I will address some objections that people have for choosing not to receive vaccinations. Finally, I will conclude why vaccines are important to human beings and society.

Knowledge on vaccinations follow known definitions of science, and vaccines are found to be a safe and effective means of protecting people from contracting fatal diseases. The science of vaccinations follows the definitions of science by Ruse and Lakatos, as well as Laudan’s belief that the better-supported science should be considered. In terms of evidence that supports vaccination, Harker has shown that vaccines do not cause autism or weakened immune systems. Additionally, the PBS documentary, Vaccines – Calling the Shots, discusses the evidence that shows that vaccines do not cause autism as well as discusses why vaccines do not cause epilepsy, that vaccine injury is much rarer than it is thought to be, and the importance of

Overall the interviews gave me the knowledge that I needed to prove my point that parents are not fully informed and educated about vaccinations. Parents are also just doing what they think is the best without speaking to a physician. Without correct information parents are choosing not to vaccinate which is the number one reason we are seeing outbreaks of disease that no longer should be present. In all my main focus was to figure out if vaccinations were worth the risk that is associated with immunization.

Vaccination is a practice that has facilitated elimination of health conditions such as smallpox and polio in most countries, especially in the United States of America. Also, a lot of lives, regardless of age bracket have been saved out of immunization through boosting people's immunity system that fights against disease-causing organisms attacking their bodies. As a result, incidence and prevalence of preventable disease via vaccination have been going down ever since the innovation of vaccine medicine. According to the Utilitarian theory, it would be more optimific for everyone to be vaccinated and prevent potential dangers of diseases to future generations (Shafer-Landau, 2018). Therefore, immunizing people have become a utility, that is, an action that has led to positive impacts of improving peoples' health leading to happiness in most parts of the world. This is an activity that should be championed across the globe to help in eradicating conditions such as measles and rubella that threatens the lives and health of newborns and other people as well. To achieve such outcome, immunization should be made mandatory for everyone apart from those who have a medical rationale.

Vaccines have become an important health intervention throughout the years. A vaccine is a product that produces immunity from a disease and can be given by the nose or the mouth.

The human body is characterized by multiple systems that contribute to its overall well-being. The defense of the body from pathogens and foreign materials is regulated through the immune system. A failure in this system can result in the contraction of an infection that can generate negative side effects such as decreased function of the system, injured organs, or death. Children’s immune systems are often still developing during common times of infection, so the likelihood of contraction increases. To combat the increasing number of contractions, the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) manufacture products that build children’s immune systems through specific immunity: vaccines. When a pathogen is encountered by the immune system, the body recognizes the threat and eliminates the harmful agent. Vaccinations promote the overall health of the body by assisting the immune system. Vaccines allow a child’s immune system to recognize harmful agents and defend itself if it encounters the agent again. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration should require all children to receive vaccinations for life-threatening infections because a regulated vaccination schedule will allow the general population to obtain a better state of health.