Vaccinations: Why They Should Be Mandatory Vaccines have become a staple of medical examinations, recommended by doctors. The combination of these doctors’ advice and the fact that there are vaccines required to be allowed to go to school, most parents today vaccinate their children. However, many other parents avoid vaccinating their children by obtaining exemptions for reasons that range from medical to philosophical. Although this may be interpreted as parents utilizing the right to care for their own children as they see fit, it makes the youth vulnerable to disease. Because of this, all school children should be vaccinated, barring those with medical exemptions. Vaccinations work by introducing dead or weak pathogens (biological agents
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The first vaccine was the smallpox vaccine, created by Edward Jenner in the 18th century. Smallpox is a disease infamous for its death toll, with a 30% fatality rate. In 1979, a “collaborative global vaccination programme [sic] led by the World Health Organization” was undergone in an attempt to completely remove smallpox (“Frequently Asked Questions...”). Because the undertaking was completely based on the premise that vaccines would prevent infection of smallpox, its subsequent success further proves the effectiveness of vaccines. Polio, whose most famous victim was President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was another disease that was successfully eliminated through the use of vaccines. In 1950s America, polio infected thousands of children, leaving many dead or paralyzed. 1952, in particular, had a record 57,000 cases; 21,000 of those infected were left paralyzed and another 3,000 were killed. However, through the work of researchers such as Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, effective polio vaccines were produced. A year after the vaccines were first tested, “researchers were able to say that vaccinated kids had lower rates of polio than kids who hadn 't received the shots” (Fischman). From this data, it can be determined that vaccines are what caused the difference in polio rates rather than any other variable. Vaccinating children against diseases protects …show more content…
This fear is one of the major reasons of why some parents prevent their children from being vaccinated. In 1988, The Lancet, a respected medical journal, published a paper specifying a link between the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine and autism. However, after further research by other doctors, the paper was retracted. Despite this, many people today still believe that the MMR vaccine causes autism, positing that the mercury-containing compound thimerosal, a preservative, is the source of the development of autism. The fallacy in this argument lies in the amount of thimerosal that the children are being exposed to; after all, even large quantities of water can kill. In one particular study, it was found that after exposing babies to thimerosal, the vast majority had “mercury levels of 1 to 3 parts per billion in their blood” (“Study suggest mercury...”), safely below the federal limit of 5.9 parts per billion. This indicates that even if mercury specifically caused autism, the level being introduced to children is simply too small to make an impact. In addition, due to the fears of parents, thimerosal was removed from the majority of childhood vaccines in 2001. However, this made no impact on the rates of the autism diagnoses, disproving any connection between the two. Without the fear that autism can be induced in a child through vaccination, vaccinating against debilitating diseases quickly becomes the
The first vaccine was the smallpox vaccine, created by Edward Jenner in the 18th century. Smallpox is a disease infamous for its death toll, with a 30% fatality rate. In 1979, a “collaborative global vaccination programme [sic] led by the World Health Organization” was undergone in an attempt to completely remove smallpox (“Frequently Asked Questions...”). Because the undertaking was completely based on the premise that vaccines would prevent infection of smallpox, its subsequent success further proves the effectiveness of vaccines. Polio, whose most famous victim was President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was another disease that was successfully eliminated through the use of vaccines. In 1950s America, polio infected thousands of children, leaving many dead or paralyzed. 1952, in particular, had a record 57,000 cases; 21,000 of those infected were left paralyzed and another 3,000 were killed. However, through the work of researchers such as Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, effective polio vaccines were produced. A year after the vaccines were first tested, “researchers were able to say that vaccinated kids had lower rates of polio than kids who hadn 't received the shots” (Fischman). From this data, it can be determined that vaccines are what caused the difference in polio rates rather than any other variable. Vaccinating children against diseases protects …show more content…
This fear is one of the major reasons of why some parents prevent their children from being vaccinated. In 1988, The Lancet, a respected medical journal, published a paper specifying a link between the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine and autism. However, after further research by other doctors, the paper was retracted. Despite this, many people today still believe that the MMR vaccine causes autism, positing that the mercury-containing compound thimerosal, a preservative, is the source of the development of autism. The fallacy in this argument lies in the amount of thimerosal that the children are being exposed to; after all, even large quantities of water can kill. In one particular study, it was found that after exposing babies to thimerosal, the vast majority had “mercury levels of 1 to 3 parts per billion in their blood” (“Study suggest mercury...”), safely below the federal limit of 5.9 parts per billion. This indicates that even if mercury specifically caused autism, the level being introduced to children is simply too small to make an impact. In addition, due to the fears of parents, thimerosal was removed from the majority of childhood vaccines in 2001. However, this made no impact on the rates of the autism diagnoses, disproving any connection between the two. Without the fear that autism can be induced in a child through vaccination, vaccinating against debilitating diseases quickly becomes the