The first ever modern vaccine was created just over 200 years ago by Dr. Edward Jenner. It was made to treat the smallpox outbreak Europe was facing at the time. Nowadays, we have hundreds of vaccines available for almost every sort of infection. The idea behind the vaccine is simple. According to the CDC (2013), “Vaccines help develop immunity by imitating an infection. This type of infection, however, does not cause illness. The infection does cause the immune system to produce T-lymphocytes and antibodies.” The idea is to give your body a warmup fight with the infection so that if the real thing ever hit, your immune system already knew how to fight it off. Over the years, vaccines have been incorporated into society with most children
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These parents believe that vaccines may be harmful for their children, therefore they avoid them. The aim of this paper is to make the case for vaccinations, and why they are causing more good than potential bad. Before I want to get into why vaccines are a benefit for society, I’d like to examine the counter argument and the evidence that may support it. The biggest concern for parents is the possible link between Autism and vaccines. The main argument for this link is the Thimerosal compound found in vaccinations. As defined by the CDC, Thimerosal is “a vaccine additive, added to some vaccines to prevent germs (like bacteria and fungi) from growing in them.” I set out to find if there as a possible connection between Thimerosal and Autism. Quickly, I found a journal studying the two topics that left me in confusion: Autism and Thimerosal-containing Vaccines. Their conclusion claimed that “…the evidence is inadequate to accept or reject a causal relationship between exposure to Thimerosal from vaccines and … autism… . [However,]…the hypothesis is biologically plausible.” (P.106) The study concluded that although it didn 't find any concrete evidence pointing to a link, they …show more content…
This is important because it helps protect members of the community that are either too young or too old to become vaccinated, as well as those with a weakened immune system such as those with HIV. Therefore, in order to verify whether or not herd immunity was a measurable effect, I looked to scientific journals for the answer. The first journal I found was named: Herd immunity and serotype replacement 4 years after seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccination in England and Wales: an observational cohort study. They found that through vaccinations, there was an indirect benefit to the elderly in terms of preventative medicine. This finding helps support the idea of herd immunity. Another study, Vaccine herd effect, goes more into depth about herd immunity. This study take a more in depth look into herd immunity benefits and the different vaccines they are better suited for them. For example, in the case of the Influenza Vaccine, they found that only vaccinating high risk patients lead to the poor determent of the influenza infection because their immune systems were not able to function properly. They argue that having the general population vaccinated was much more of an effective buffer for these high risk patients than vaccinating them only. They also said that “there is now evidence that a benefit of up to 60% effectiveness may be seen in unvaccinated individuals due to
These parents believe that vaccines may be harmful for their children, therefore they avoid them. The aim of this paper is to make the case for vaccinations, and why they are causing more good than potential bad. Before I want to get into why vaccines are a benefit for society, I’d like to examine the counter argument and the evidence that may support it. The biggest concern for parents is the possible link between Autism and vaccines. The main argument for this link is the Thimerosal compound found in vaccinations. As defined by the CDC, Thimerosal is “a vaccine additive, added to some vaccines to prevent germs (like bacteria and fungi) from growing in them.” I set out to find if there as a possible connection between Thimerosal and Autism. Quickly, I found a journal studying the two topics that left me in confusion: Autism and Thimerosal-containing Vaccines. Their conclusion claimed that “…the evidence is inadequate to accept or reject a causal relationship between exposure to Thimerosal from vaccines and … autism… . [However,]…the hypothesis is biologically plausible.” (P.106) The study concluded that although it didn 't find any concrete evidence pointing to a link, they …show more content…
This is important because it helps protect members of the community that are either too young or too old to become vaccinated, as well as those with a weakened immune system such as those with HIV. Therefore, in order to verify whether or not herd immunity was a measurable effect, I looked to scientific journals for the answer. The first journal I found was named: Herd immunity and serotype replacement 4 years after seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccination in England and Wales: an observational cohort study. They found that through vaccinations, there was an indirect benefit to the elderly in terms of preventative medicine. This finding helps support the idea of herd immunity. Another study, Vaccine herd effect, goes more into depth about herd immunity. This study take a more in depth look into herd immunity benefits and the different vaccines they are better suited for them. For example, in the case of the Influenza Vaccine, they found that only vaccinating high risk patients lead to the poor determent of the influenza infection because their immune systems were not able to function properly. They argue that having the general population vaccinated was much more of an effective buffer for these high risk patients than vaccinating them only. They also said that “there is now evidence that a benefit of up to 60% effectiveness may be seen in unvaccinated individuals due to