Vaccines Save Lives & Fear Endangers Them Essay Example

red frequency--match check-text__match--highlight" data-match-index-1="0">vaccinate yourself or your child. All 50 states have regulations requiring students to get vaccinated if they wish to attend public school, but there are exemptions to these regulations. Over the years, many states have changed their regulations regarding exemptions, making it harder for parents to opt out of vaccinations for their children.

Vaccinations are an important enough issue nationwide to where the laws should be the same in all 50 states. All schools give exemptions for medical reasons, and some schools give exemptions for religious purposes and personal belief purposes. Even though it is not mandatory, getting children vaccinated should be a top priority in a parent's life for many reasons. Another factor parents should think about is finding a good pediatrician.

A lot of pediatricians are now seeing a lot of vaccine refusal parents, and the pediatricians are pushing back by dismissing or not treating these children. Ever since the Disneyland Measles outbreak in 2015, doctors have been leaning more toward the side of turning down families that do not wish to vaccinate (Haelle). This has remained controversial for a very long time, but the American Academy of Pediatrics understands why these doctors are making this decision.

The AAP states that they would rather have the doctors not turn families away, and provide them with healthcare assistance while trying to persuade them to vaccinate in the near future (Haelle). No matter

what side the parents are on, multiple aspects of fear and suspicion are what drives them to make the decision they do. With the intention of not getting their children vaccinated, many parents use the common excuse of religion. Just like each state having a different view on vaccines, each religion also has their own beliefs about vaccines as well.

Every state except West Virginia and Mississippi offer religious exemptions (Novella). These states also have a higher vaccination rate than others that give the option of this exemption. The reason most states offer this exemption option is that they believe religious beliefs are linked to the core beliefs of a person and most of the time they cannot change their values. Some examples of religious beliefs on vaccines include, the Hinduism and Buddhism community are pro-vaccine because they believe it will help people live a longer, healthier life.

Most Christian followers are pro-vaccine, but there has been a worry in the past that vaccines can cause abortions so people were not getting vaccinated for that reason. The Jehovah's Witness community has changed their views many times over the years. In the 1920's to 40's the church was completely against vaccination because of their doctrine about human blood. When the 1950's rolled around, the church took a neutral

stance until the 1990's when they began to realize all of the lives vaccinations were saving ('What Religions Actually State about Vaccines').

Many myths about religious beliefs and tactics regarding vaccinations have been proven false over the years. For example, there was a myth in the Judaism community that vaccines are often made of pork, and consumption of pork is restricted by Jewish dietary law so they were demanded not to vaccinate. Usually, religions don't have specific rules about whether they are allowed to vaccinate or not, and it is just a preference that differs between families. Although the parents who are against vaccines have the right to do what they want, because there is no law covering it, they should think about the safety of their children and others around them.

A big reason some religions don't believe in vaccines is that they think they are made up of harsh chemicals and contents that will harm their child. Vaccines have been perfected over the years and are very safe and effective. Scientist and doctors take their time carefully reviewing the makeups of vaccines so that they will benefit everyone in the long run. In addition to the religious exemptions, one of the main reasons parents choose against vaccination is because of safety concerns.

Many myths have been

debunked over the years, but parents still choose to believe them. Parents hear about these myths over the internet or on social media and do not take the time out of their day to do factual research on it afterward. Some superstitions parents believe in are a child will get sick shortly after injection, multiple vaccines will overload a child's immune system and cause greater health risks in the long run, and side effects of vaccines will cause health issues. Possibly the most damaging medical hoax people hear about begun in 1998.

During this time, a doctor named Andrew Wakefield constructed and published a paper describing a new autism phenotype called the regressive autism-enterocolitis syndrome. He claimed that this syndrome was called by diseases such as rubella, measles, and mumps vaccination. People all over the world heard about this controversy and vaccination rates dropped tremendously. After 10 years of investigating his findings, Wakefield was found guilty of scientific misconduct in the publishing of his paper (Flaherty).

On the contrary, the only discomfort vaccines will cause is at the site of injection and maybe for a few hours afterward. Vaccines may cause redness and tenderness of the area injected, but this minimal pain is nothing compared to the suffering and agony that will come with a disease. Another reason that differs slightly from safety concerns is the parents personal or philosophical beliefs on vaccinations.

Only 20 states

offer exemptions for this type of reason, and most of the time it must be studied and proven in order to be exempt. Some of these beliefs entail parents who believe that leaving the body's natural immunity alone is safer than building up an immunity through vaccination. Others have the 'Oh, my kid will never catch it' belief, so they don't even bother. Most of the time, our bodies natural immunity is not strong enough to fight off diseases.

Getting vaccinations will make life easier on the child and the parent. Vaccines will build up the immune system and even if a child does get sick, it won't be near as awful as it would be if they didn't have the antibodies from the vaccine. Diseases and illnesses catch up to everyone so parents need to be taking more precautions for their families and others around them. Most parents who claim to have these types of beliefs do not know enough about vaccines and the benefits that they can do for the human population.

As can be seen above, the main reason parents decide to become anti-vaccine is because a good number of parents are not educated enough on the risks of not vaccinating their children. The main source of misinformation for these uneducated parents is social media and the internet. The internet is easy to access so a lot of times parents will turn

here instead of a professional in the field for help. Parents find information that is made up or not backed up by a credible source and they decide to believe it without doing further research.

There is a lot to know about vaccines, and there are a lot of controversies that have happened in the past that parents need to know about. Almost all of these controversies have been found false and a lot of parents don't know that. Sometimes, newer parents get so overwhelmed by all of the information that they read about and then they decide to take precautions and not vaccinate. These parents want to do what is best for their child so they do a lot of online research without asking their health care provider their thoughts (Ward).

On the positive side of this, doctors and practitioners see this as a good opportunity to inform parents of the pros and cons, because a lot of the time they will change their mind and become pro-vaccine (LaSalle). In addition, another topic people don't know much about is the importance of herd immunity or in other words community immunity.

Vaccines Today defines herd immunity as a type of immunity that happens when a significant number of a population gets vaccinated and provides a measure of protection for individuals who have not yet developed immunity ('What Is Herd Immunity?'). In theory, this means that not everyone in a community needs to be immune to prevent the spread

of disease, but it is still recommended that everyone does. Herd immunity differs from each disease because not every contagious disease has the same transmission rate. For example, herd immunity has not stopped outbreaks of highly transmittable diseases like measles and rubella from happening (Meissner). The people who are anti-vaccine threaten everyone around them by destroying the idea of herd immunity, which means they are not only putting their child at risk but everyone around them as well.

As most people should know, medical exemptions are the only reason people should be anti-vaccine because of ideas like herd immunity. The small number of children that have medical conditions that cause them to have allergic reactions to some vaccinations results in them not being able to be vaccinated. These children heavily rely on the idea of herd immunity since they can not build up a stronger immune system by vaccination (Novella). Given these points, if something is not done about the number of parents who are anti-vaccine, and they continue to increase, the events that will happen will be disastrous for the human population everywhere.

In February of 2015, Vice magazine interviewed an expert in the medical field named Dr. Paul Offit. This interview really caught my attention because Simon Davis, the interviewee, was asking Dr. Offit what he thought our world would look like if the vaccination rates continued to decrease over the years. Dr.

Offit basically said our world would look identical to how our world was years ago when people would die from diseases that are easily prevented in today's world because of vaccinations. Dr. Offit then mentioned Governor Christie, from the state of New Jersey, and a few of Christie's thoughts regarding parental rights and vaccinations.

Dr. Offit gave the brief statement saying Governor Christie thought that parents should be able to make whatever decision they want when it comes to vaccinations because it is their child. Offit then pointed out that in the state of New Jersey it is required by law that a car seat must be provided for children and their safety. Car seats are meant to save a child's life if an accident was ever to occur. Vaccines are doing the same thing for children and adults.

Vaccines will save your child's life by building up a strong immune system in case an outbreak occurs (Davis). This proves my point that vaccinations should be a law in all 50 states for the safety of all children and adults in the United States. Other risks people don't really think about when becoming anti-vaccine are the current risks of not vaccinating, but also the long-term effects it can have.

Vaccines will not only protect the current population from disease outbreaks, like mumps, measles, chickenpox,

and meningitis, but it will also provide protection for our future generations as long as people continue to be smart about their vaccination decisions (Ratzan). What many people don't realize is once a disease is 'gone', or under control, that it can most definitely come back. For example, in the year 1974, Japan had a child vaccination rate of 80% regarding the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine.

Shortly after this, Japan's people thought that the whooping cough disease was gone for good and that the usage of vaccinations was pointless and overrated. 5 years later in 1979, the immunization rate dropped tremendously from 80% to only 10% of children becoming vaccinated and a horrible outbreak occurred. The cases of whooping cough recorded in Japan rose in just 5 short years from 393 to 13,000 ('Vaccines & Immunizations'). If these anti-vaccine numbers continue to rise, there will be many more deaths that could have been prevented.

There will be many more cases of disease illnesses that people thought the United States got rid of for good. Most vaccines were not meant to be a one and done kind of deal. People have to keep up to date with their vaccinations to keep themselves and everyone around them safe. In the final analysis, the only reason parents should ever want to be exempt from vaccinations is

for medical purposes only. People that have these rare medical conditions are small in number and herd immunity will pick up the slack and help protect these people that can't have the option of vaccination.

Vaccinations are a remarkable invention that saves millions of lives every year. Vaccinations are safe, have many benefits to the human body, and the industry continues to grow and get better over time with the help of technology. All 50 states should have a law that states you have to vaccinate your child no matter what, with the exception of medical reasons. People who are anti-vaccine need to become more educated on the issue and care more about the safety of their family and the people around them.

I like to think all parents only want to do what is best for their kids and family, but they don't know where to turn when they hear all of the controversies and lies on vaccines. In my opinion, the best thing to do if someone has any doubt about vaccinations is to ask their health care provider what their stance is on the vaccination process. Any healthcare professional will tell you that vaccinating your child is the safest thing to do for your child and everyone else.

Even though most of the time parents should be able to make their

own decisions regarding their children, religion, safety concerns, and personal or philosophical beliefs should not be an excuse to put others at risk of a disease outbreak. If we don't want to revert to our world's old ways, parents need to stop being so scared of the vaccine that is going to save their child's life and start being more scared of the infectious diseases they will catch if they are not vaccinated.

Work Cited

1. “Arizona Partnership for Immunization – What Religions Actually State about Vaccines.” Arizona Partnership for Immunization, 17 Jan. 2018, www.whyimmunize.org/what-religions-actually-state-about-vaccines/.
2. Davis, Simon. “We Asked an Expert What Would Happen If No One Got Vaccinated.” Vice, VICE, 4 Feb. 2015, www.vice.com/en_us/article/ppmn3y/we-asked-an-expert-what-would-happen-if-we-stopped-vaccinating-everyone-204.
3. Flaherty, D. K. (2011). The Vaccine-Autism Connection: A Public Health Crisis Caused by Unethical Medical Practices and Fraudulent Science. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 45(10), 1302–1304. https://doi.org/10.1345/aph.1Q318
4. Haelle, Tara. “As More Parents Refuse Vaccines, More Doctors Dismiss Them -- With AAP's Blessing.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 29 Aug. 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2016/08/29/as-more-parents-refuse-vaccines-more-doctors-dismiss-them-with-aaps-blessing/#446d34221f22.