Pros And Cons Of Vaccine Refusal

The Universal Vaccine Controversy Vaccines have become a major part of our world today. A large number of diseases have been prevented from large, deadly outbreaks. Although vaccines usually seem to be projected as having a positive effect, many people refuse to receive vaccinations. These people believe the side effects of vaccines could be potentially worse and cause more damage than the risk of getting the disease itself. Because vaccines are highly controversial, it is important to understand how they work and to then weigh the benefits versus the risks.

State-mandated policies require certain childhood immunization to be completed prior to entry into school. Ethical debate has occurred over whether states have this right to mandate these vaccinations or if families should have the freedom to choose based on religious and philosophical conflicts in beliefs. Though regulations regarding vaccinations may violate one 's autonomy, the government believes they are just in requiring them in order to protect the greatest number of people (History of Vaccines, 2018). In recent years the rate of refusal has been on the rise so this paper will discuss the pros and cons of mandated vaccinations as well as related ethical issues.

Introduction Vaccines are known to be a crucial means of maintaining population health, although many people are against being and/or getting their children vaccinated. A vaccination typically consists of a low-dose or synthetic virus strains injected into the body such that one will develop an immune response to that specific pathogen. In the case that a person contracts the virus in the future, their immune system will be able to recognize it and act faster, thus killing the invader. The war on vaccines escalated in 1998 when a false claim was made that the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine was linked to colitis (inflammation of the colon) and autism spectrum disorders.

The Good the Bad and the Vaccine Vaccines, a term that gives some parents the peace of mind and makes some parents anxious. Vaccines makes our bodies ready to fight disease and viruses more effectively by introducing our body to microscopic amounts of viruses and bacteria. Common deadly diseases such as small pox that took many lives has now been eliminated because of the smallpox vaccine. In the past common diseases such as polio, rubella is now a rare case because of vaccination. To prevent public out break, Vaccination for childhood diseases such as pertussis, polio, measles, diphtheria, rubella is now mandatory for children attending public schools in Canada.

Many people may think that vaccination is a bad thing, that instead of preventing it causes illness, that is not natural. Natural or not, there are many reasons as to why we should vaccinate us and the younger generation. Most of the time children don’t like vaccination because it hurt, but is the responsibility of a parent to seek the wellbeing of his or her child. Vaccination it’s a preventive measure of various diseases. Unfortunately, things like the anti-vaccination movement, the misinformation on the Internet, and the believe that vaccination causes more damage than is worth, have led our society to think that it’s right not to vaccinate.

Modern medicine provides people with the ability to protect themselves from the world’s most fatal diseases. Merely a century ago, it was not uncommon for a child to die as a result of diseases such as, polio, pertussis, and tuberculosis. Today it is highly unlikely for a person to contract these diseases, let alone die from them. However, refusal of vaccinations has been increasing throughout the years. This is due to individual’s unfounded fears and imagines consequences associated with the idea of purposely inserting a disease into one’s body.

People have chosen not to get themselves or their children vaccinated since they were first available. There has always been controversy over vaccinations, they thought to be immoral or objectionable, and they are! Vaccines are unsafe, unnatural and unnecessary for the human population. Medical technology has improved in the last 100 years and so have our living conditions. Yet we have never been sicker, this is the first generation who will not out live their parents.

The prevention of transmitting STDs has proven to be a controversial subject in the United States. The argument comes not from the objective of eliminating STDs, which everyone shares, but the differing strategies for arriving at that goal. The theory is that even mentioning condoms, much less admitting that they dramatically reduce the possibility of HIV infection, sends a “mixed message” about the worth and value of total abstinence up until marriage. Groups such as the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA) state that avoiding sexual activity before marriage is the only surefire or secure method of protecting oneself from STDs. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the average age for Americans to lose their virginities is around 17 for both men and women.

Only biological conditions take away lives, but they are offset by the development of modern medicine. Natural selection has been stopped and its lack has given our population the possibility of growing exponentially, without any true limits that hold our population back. Humans have developed medicines that can control certain diseases, counterattacking diseases faster and more effectively. Varicella, or colloquially Chicken Pox, is a very contagious and deadly disease. It causes a variety of symptoms and can lead to rapid excruciating death.

The disagreement was that vaccines were causing autism among horrible disease in children. This was immediately disagreed with by most all of the scientific community with many researchers showing their own data to disprove that which said vaccines were causing harm. This being the consensus of the scientific community that vaccines are beneficial for people and prevent illness while not causing them. In this case robust knowledge created through a massive consensus by the scientific community in an attempt to prevent people from not vaccinating their children out of fear of this one study. The natural sciences heavily rely on these mass consensus to create robust knowledge.

To me, it’s a two-sided story, why or why not children should obtain the flu shot. For instance, I really believe that the age of six months is too young for a flu shot. This only my opinion, furthermore in this presentation of pros and cons concerning the flu shot, included are statements from average people who have basic concerns for and against this shot. Facts are also noted from professional experts that give reason as to why the flu shot is vital to adults as well as children.

After seeing the results of the successful vaccinations, England passed two acts that required the smallpox vaccine. Many people believed that it violated their personal liberty because the government was forcing everyone to be injected with a drug against their permission. In response, two groups formed called the Anti-Vaccination League and the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League. They planned demonstrations that lead to the development of a commission to study vaccinations. This commission ruled that the vaccine did protect against smallpox, but parents should not be penalized for choosing not to vaccinate their children.

Some parents might argue that vaccines are not safe, and that by the government forcing parents to vaccinate their children, they are harming their children. Skeptical parents may thing that vaccines are not safe due to autism being linked to vaccines in some rare cases. On the contrary, vaccines are actually very safe and effective, “Vaccines are only given to children after a long and careful review by scientists, doctors, and healthcare professionals… The disease-prevention benefits of getting vaccines are much greater than the possible side effects for almost all children,” (vaccines.org). By having healthcare professions carefully examine the child to make sure he or she is ready for the vaccine shows how much they care about the safety and welfare of your child.

Recently, there have been many reports of children being vaccinated, and later on, they begin to develop these disabilities. This has created a scare within the American society, and parents are starting to speculate that vaccines contribute more harm than help. Like I stated before, “...the negative statements transform into rumors…causing a false conclusion on the topic of vaccines” (Walny). People do not perform their own investigation on the vaccination process, therefore, they must believe in everything they hear. For the individuals that do their studying, they know that vaccines prevent disease, not cause disease.

The inoculation process was harmless and had satisfied the safety of the patients with the experiment. This inoculation method showed a huge result of survival rate in the New England colonies. The death rate was reduced by a greater number and the survival rate increased vastly because of Boylston’s inoculation for smallpox disease. This life saving scheme raised the population growth in those years of the Colonial