Childhood Vaccinations Research

“Childhood vaccines are one of the great triumphs of modern medicine. Indeed, parents … no longer have to worry about their child’s death or disability from whooping cough, polio … or a host of other infections” (Emanuel). In the last decade, childhood vaccinations have been subjected to controversy, but when in reality vaccines have been saving millions of children from hospitalizations and premature death. Parental figures should give physicians or other medical professionals the consent to vaccinate their child from a number of infections, to strengthen the child’s immune system, and to give society and other people benefits in their everyday life. For over a century, vaccines have provided parts of the world with preventable care for certain …show more content…
In Gloucestershire, England, a doctor named Edward Jenner began to investigate the root of a now wide spectrum known as vaccinations. At the time, a disease known as “cowpox” affected milkmaids and became the cause for Jenner’s investigative nature that made him become known as “the father of immunisation” (Lowth 1). In the present, scientists and doctors now use vaccinations to replace the passive immunity that slowly fades after birth of an infant. Comprehending how vaccinations work is key when understanding why they are used. “Stimulating the immune system of a child to a point of which it can mount its own defense if it ever encounters the disease in question” (Lowth 1) is how vaccines work once inside a child or infant’s body. Vaccines teach a person’s immune system how to respond if they ever actually encounter a vaccine-preventable disease by mimicking the disease (Lowth 2). Though vaccines are usually only enacted into the human body intramuscularly, they are considered invasive, meaning consent is needed before children can be vaccinated. Learning the basics of immunity and vaccines greatly helped society and scientists develop different types of vaccinations for different types of diseases that save children and adults from premature …show more content…
For centuries, vaccines have saved millions of people from death, yet parents still choose not to vaccinate their children even when no evidence indicates the presence of neurological problems after vaccinations. Varieties of vaccines exist against a large amount of infections, and most states require vaccinations for entering public school and daycare centers. More than just health benefits occur from vaccinations even society and the economy benefit from children being vaccinated. When comparing medical technology of the previous century, it is easy to see that vaccinations are the greatest success when it comes to saving lives and benefiting the