Vaccination Persuasive Essay

To the average individual, the word ‘vaccination’ means to prevent illness. Vaccinations have many advantages; they allow us to be less susceptible to a variety of illnesses and diseases. Many individuals believe that vaccinations should not be mandatory. However, the benefits from vaccinations greatly outweigh the risks from side effects. The judgments are factual and ethical and are supported by testing and research findings from multiple sources.

Vaccines are responsible for many global public health successes, such as the eradication of smallpox and significant reductions in other serious infections like polio and measles. Still, vaccinations continue to be the subject of various ethical controversies. The debate of these issues includes those who are advocates and opponents, lawmakers and physicians. The key ethical points revolve around mandates, herd or community immunity, informed consent, and access

Vaccines have the potential to eradicate diseases. Vaccines completely destroyed smallpox in the United States. The last case of smallpox in the United States was in 1948. The author quotes the UNICEF who states, “There were 500 cases of polio in 2014 worldwide, down from 350,000

Recently an anti-vaccination movement has sparked a worldwide discussion about both the safety of vaccines and the responsibility of people to vaccinate. Recent outbreaks of preventable diseases have caused both fear and anger from people on both sides of the issue. These same outbreaks have also served to cause significant political tension between those against vaccines, who do not want their right to choose compromised, and many proponents of vaccines, who are calling for mandatory vaccinations.

One of the biggest benefits in being vaccinating is that they can save peoples lives. Whether it be you, your family, or your community, they protect others that you care about.

Until the development of the smallpox vaccine in 1796, inoculation using the live smallpox virus was the only way to protect people from the deadly disease. Those inoculated had a chance of contracting the full virus and potentially dying from the disease. When Edward Jenner discovered that he could use a similar disease found in cattle, he began the modern era of vaccination (The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 2015). Over the next 200 years, smallpox was essentially driven extinct by vaccination programs. Due to vaccines, a disease that killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century alone now only exists in a Center for Disease Control laboratory. (Flight, 2011).

Many diseases have seen tremendously reduced cases since the synthesizing of their vaccinations. For instance, “More than 15,000 Americans died from diphtheria in 1921, before there was a vaccine. Only one case of diphtheria has been reported to CDC since 2004” (CDC.gov). Another example of this is “An epidemic of rubella (German measles) in 1964-65 infected 12½ million Americans, killed 2,000 babies, and caused 11,000 miscarriages. In 2012, 9 cases of rubella were reported to CDC” (CDC.gov). Vaccines are constantly being developed to help save lives from disease, and so far have saved millions of lives all over the world. Tetanus, mumps, and measles shots are major examples of life saving vaccines; death rates due to these diseases have decreased dramatically since their

Immunization is the safest and most effective Public Health tool available for preventing disease and death, thanks to vaccinations many of the infectious diseases that whipped past generations such as Polio, Measles, Rubella, Diphtheria and Tetanus are rarely seen anymore.

Vaccinations can also completely eradicate virus and diseases all together. Smallpox, for example, has no mandatory vaccination because it is believed that it no longer exists. By 2012 most diseases such as mumps and rubella, have decreased by 99% because of vaccinations (Vaccine).

For the longest time, vaccines have been responsible for global and public health successes. Several include, the extinction of smallpox and the reduction of infections like the measles. Truthfully,

If enough people are vaccinated against a disease, herd immunity will protect others even if they cannot or will not get their shots. However, if participation in immunizations drops enough, the protection provided by herd immunity is broken. If more people get vaccinated, then the strength of the herd immunity also increases. If someone with a compromised immune system cannot get certain vaccines, then it is up to the immunity of the herd to protect that person from the disease. Only a few diseases, notably smallpox, have been completely eradicated by global vaccination campaigns, though others, like polio, are very close to being eliminated. If anti-vaccination advocates get their way these successes will never be repeated, and diseases the western world has mostly forgotten will be allowed to continue their existence and even become common

Vaccines are one of most successful and cost effective public health preventive tool in current century for preventing communicable diseases. According to UK Health Protection Agency (HPA), vaccination is the second most effective public health intervention worldwide. Immunization protects the individual as well the community from serious diseases. Since the implementation of immunization there has been a 95% reduction in the cases 4. According to WHO immunization prevented 2million deaths worldwide.

“Proponents argue that vaccination is safe and one of the greatest health developments of the 20th century. They point out that illnesses, including rubella, diphtheria, and whooping cough, which once killed thousands of infants annually are now prevented by vaccination” (“Vaccines”). Many deaths occur simply because children, along with adults, do not get the required shots needed. Medical treatments are not given to do a person any harm, but to keep a person and environment safe. Kids being vaccinated will give them less of a possibility to obtain a disease that could lead to death. Benefits outweigh any possibility of risking accumulating a disease. When people say that vaccinations are harmful, does not necessarily mean to develop a deadly disease, simply means some small risks. “Vaccines are not entirely harmless, but the small risks are outweighed by the benefits of a disease prevention” (Offit). Indeed flu shots must be tested in order to be able to give anyone the shot. Receiving vaccinations is only meant to help people prevent many illnesses and deaths. Although some small risks could be accumulated, those small risks are very small possibilities of anything happening to anyone. Getting immunized is not a one-time thing; people must follow up on required dates to receive them.

Despite significant progress in the fight against preventable disease, millions still die needlessly each year. According to UNICEF, originally known as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, a vaccine preventable disease is responsible for 2 million fatal infections worldwide each year. About 75% of these deaths occur in children under five years of age. (N) In more vivid terms, UNICEF notes that vaccine-preventable diseases kill a child every 20 seconds. (D) Due to high rates of childhood vaccination, the United States has experienced a dramatic reduction in such deaths. A comparison of the years 1950 and 2010 clearly illustrates the benefits of vaccinations. During this 60-year period, deaths from diphtheria reduced from 410 to 0, tetanus from 336 to 3, pertussis from 1,118 to 26, and polio from 1,904 to 0. Measles deaths dropped from 468 in 1950 to 0 in 2008, the last year a United States death rate was recorded. It’s not surprising that vaccinations have been touted as one of the top ten health achievements of the 20th century by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

There has been an ample amount of dispute over the morality, effectiveness and the safety of vaccination ever since the original smallpox vaccine over two centuries ago. Parents, teachers, children and health care specialists all have a vital stake in this debate. Parents believe they should have the right to make the decision on whether or not to vaccinate their children. While health care officials disagree, claiming that by not vaccinating, all children will be susceptible to the vaccine-preventable diseases. Megan Heimer discusses the risk of vaccinating a child and that it should not be mandatory in her article, “The Hate Debate”. Although Megan Heimer writes a relatively convincing argument, I strongly disagree. I believe that vaccination should be mandatory. It is a parents’ responsibility to protect our children and future generations from these preventable diseases.