Abstract
This paper explores the many claims of civilians who are either against or against vaccinations for children. There will be at least 2 articles in this paper giving both views on children being immunized and their effects. Some will oppose and say it ends the life of a child rather than helping and some argue that it helps the lives of children from getting fatal diseases. Both articles give different insights into the situation and will eventually lead you to put in your own opinion.
Should Children Be Immunized?
Not getting a vaccine and getting a vaccine can both lead to a deadly end. In this paper, I will reveal both the pros and cons of getting a vaccine as well as explain the risks of getting one for your child. The pros will initially expose the benefits for a child in getting a vaccination whilst the cons will reveal the risks for a child in getting one simple vaccination and how it can potentially harm his/her life permanently. I will also use research strategies from chapter one and chapter two comparing them to the course material. At the end of my essay, I will personally give my opinion on whether children should get vaccinations or not.
Vaccination is preventive and one of the greatest developments in the security of the 21st century, proponents say. We note that vaccinations have been a great help and millions of children’s lives are spared by illnesses such as Rubella, Diphtheria, smallpox, polio, and whooping cough. Opponents argue and claim that children’s immune systems can cope with most diseases normally and that administering unknown vaccine products to the child can cause side effects, including epilepsy, coma, and even death. Numerous studies have shown that vaccines can cause autism, ADHD, and diabetes problems. In a case study, the percentage of children who were unvaccinated in the study population rose from 0.8% in 2016 to 1.1% in 2017. This means a lot of the children who did not get shots are most likely either sick or about to be, mainly because diseases are all around us almost every single day.
It is extremely rare for vaccines to create an adverse reaction. Anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction, is the most common side effect which occurs in one per several hundred thousand to one per million vaccinations. MD Chief medical correspondent for CNN and neurosurgeon, Sanjay Gupta, states that an average person or child is 100 times more likely to get struck by lightning than to receive an allergic reaction from vaccines. Opponents claim that vaccines contain harmful Ingredients, most physicians believe that thimerosal which is an organic mercury compound found in one flu vaccine for children and adults is linked to autism.
Aluminum is also used in most vaccines and having too much aluminum inside a human body can cause neurological harm. Another chemical compound that is found in vaccines, Formaldehyde, is a carcinogen. Vaxtruth.org states that any type of exposure can cause side effects such as cardiac impairment, central nervous system depression, coma, convulsions, and even death.
A positive correlation for taking vaccines would be that your child would be out of harm's way and will have a least likely chance of getting a fatal disease whilst the negative correlation for getting your child a vaccination would be all the side effects and what the effects can do to one's child. Vaccinations undergo a lot of experiments before any doctor or physician can even give a medical clinic, hospital, etc., vaccinations for children. Therefore, your child would be in good hands before and after getting vaccinations. There are multiple surveys out in the world asking civilians, mostly mothers, if children should get immunized 95% of the outcomes would be that mothers and civilians would go for immunizing their children. Ingredients in vaccines are safe. Meaning that the levels used are appropriate for the ingredients in the vaccinations. Vaccines can contain dangerous concentrations of additives like thimerosal, formaldehyde, and aluminum however breast milk and infant formulas contain more aluminum than in vaccines and children are more exposed to breast milk and formula than they are exposed to vaccines. Paul Offit, MD states that children in one day of normal activity are exposed to more bacteria, viruses, contaminants, and harmful substances than in vaccinations.
However, opponents will continue to argue back and forth that vaccines are harmful and will lead your child to lifelong neurological damage if your child is unlucky. Science has improved along the way, therefore, there is less chance of your child getting a side effect than before but of course, that does not eliminate the possibility of a child getting side effects from vaccinations.
There are a lot of wonderful variables for getting your child immunized. Moreover, it is a lot safer to get your child immunized rather than to not get a vaccine shot for your kid. This can easily be observed through a cross-sectional graph, which will show and collect data from different age cohorts. It will also compare the groups in which ones were okay after the vaccination and which ones got the side effects. The only cons of it would be that you would not be able to look at any other cohorts if no anymore were studied. Side effects from vaccinations will most likely be in the ranges of 3-6 years of age but not all will be affected, maybe one in fourth of the children being studied will get side effects whilst the other ones turned out to be perfectly fine.
In my opinion, I believe that children should be immunized. I say this because I have a daughter of my own and I would want her to be healthy and out of harmful ways (diseases). I disagree with people who oppose vaccinations because it is basically saying that they would rather have their child die or be permanently harmed by not getting a vaccination than get a vaccination so that their child can be out of harm's way. As a mother, I want my daughter to be healthy and safe from all the diseases that are fatal or can cause any harm to her permanently. I believe all children poor or from wealthy households should be immunized so that they will not catch a disease or even worse be harmed by not getting a vaccine shot. My daughter is my pride and joy, all I want from her is to be happy and healthy just like I would want any other kid to be happy and healthy. As a kid, my mother would get me my vaccine shots and I never really understood why, I always thought it was a checkup or something of that sort but as I grew up, I learned the importance of vaccine shots therefore I will give my daughter, Yazmine, all the required vaccine shots she needs so that I can have the peace of mind that she is okay and healthy.
References
- Daniel R. Bronfin, MD Childhood Immunization Controversies: What are Parents Saying? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3096324/
- Walter A. Orenstein and Rafi Ahmed Simply put: Vaccination saves lives https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5402432/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3096324/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5402432/