Ten Great Public Health Benefits Of Vaccines

Vaccinations, one of the greatest public health accomplishments, are given all around the world (Ten Great Public Health Achievements, 1999). “Vaccines help develop immunity by imitating an infection, but this “imitation” infection does not cause illness” (For Parents: Vaccines for Your Children, 2016). Vaccines prevent against illness and provides protection against large outbreaks and deaths. Although vaccines benefit many individuals, the controversy of safety and denying of rights remains. Vaccines can create side effects, which raises concerns among parents. For example, parents have also heard untrue rumors of vaccines causing autism and SIDS. The textbook, Introduction to Public Health (2017) denies these rumors through studies. The original claim that linked the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to autism was retracted because of the fraudulent representation of data. The Institute of Medicine published a review of the connection between vaccines and SIDS; the review found no link between the two topics (Schneider & Schneider, 2017, p. 130). Not only is safety a concern, the issue of required vaccinations also creates frustration. Some parents want to look at the risks and side effects to determine if their child should receive the vaccination. Parents are concerned with the amount of vaccines a child receives. For example, “Today every child born is expected to be ‘inoculated’ with some 30 vaccines by the age of 18 months and by …show more content…
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