Why Vaccinations Should Be Mandatory For All Children In 2000, American health officials declared that measles had been eradicated within the United States. However, in 2015 more than 140 cases of the measles, one of the most contagious of all childhood diseases, have shown up across the country since an outbreak in California. The reason for this current outbreak is that more and more people have begun to go unvaccinated in the United States. Outbreaks of dangerous childhood diseases like the measles is one of the many reasons every child should be vaccinated. Vaccinations also protect the community, defend future generations, and are safe and effective. The first reason every child who can should be vaccinated is that vaccinations protect the community with herd immunity. When most of a community is vaccinated against a contagious disease, most members are protected from it because there is little chance of an outbreak. Even those who cannot be vaccinated, such as infants, pregnant women, or immunocompromised people are protected because the spread of a contagious disease is contained. This is herd immunity and it protects everyone, especially those who cannot be vaccinated, from getting contagious diseases. Especially someone like Riley Beck, a 5-year-old with leukemia, who cannot be vaccinated due to her illness. She was …show more content…
Vaccinations eradicated smallpox worldwide and now children don’t have to receive vaccinations for smallpox because of the work the vaccines did. Vaccines also played an important role in ending the polio virus. If we continue vaccinating now and completely we can trust that some diseases will no longer be around. This almost happened with measles, but the increase of people going unvaccinated prevented a deadly childhood disease from being eliminated from the U.S. Vaccinations are also very safe and
Immunizations can save a child’s life; due to the medical advances that have taken place, kids are now protected from many illness/ diseases. At one point in time, Polio was a horrible illness that is now preventable by simply receiving a shot (USDHHS, n.d.). Immunizations protect not only the individual receiving the vaccination, but others as well. Certain individuals are not suitable for specific vaccinations, therefore, if everyone else has the vaccination, the people who cannot are more likely to be safe from the illness (USDHHS, n.d). Generally, immunizations are safe, effective, cheaper in the long run, and can save families time.
It is important for all people to be vaccinated to protect themselves from contracting communicable diseases, from spreading these diseases, and from the high cost of treating these preventable diseases. It would make sense to do so. No one wants to contract diseases, or be laid up if they can prevent it. Getting vaccinated will prevent anyone from spreading contracted diseases to others. It can also be very costly when trying to treating a communicable disease that could have been prevented with a vaccine.
One of the many benefits of vaccinating children is it saves them from life-threatening diseases. The many diseases which children are immunized from include, Measles, Mumps, Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis (whooping cough), Polio, Hepatitis A and B and much more. Long before the time of vaccines, there was a shocking rate of deaths that occurred worldwide.
The article “Five Important Reasons to Vaccinate Your Child” reasons that “Some diseases that once injured or killed thousands of children, have been eliminated completely and others are close to extinction– primarily due to safe and effective vaccines”. Because of vaccines the world today as we know it is slowly becoming safer as more and more diseases are being eradicated. The U.S. has helped in their own way to get rid of diseases. The article “Should Any Vaccines Be Required for Children?” states that “In 1855 Massachusetts passed the first U.S. state law mandating vaccinations for schoolchildren [5], followed by New York (1862), Connecticut (1872), Indiana (1881), and Arkansas (1882).” So as the years went on the U.S. has continually integrated vaccinations for the youth, in this case, it is needed in order to attend
When vaccination rates were high, measles outbreaks were virtually non-existent. However, with the anti-vaccination movements becoming more rampant, vaccination rates have been decreasing, and measles outbreaks are becoming more frequent. When less people refuse vaccinations, the probability that a person can pass the infection on to someone else increases. As a result, the infection rapidly spreads among unvaccinated individuals, leading to an outbreak. Whereas, if enough proportions of the population are vaccinated, then the infection cannot spread as easily, ultimately containing it.
Mandating Vaccines Vaccines have been a major topic in the United States with parents having a choice to vaccinate their children. Vaccinations are made to prevent children from diseases like smallpox, measles, polio, diphtheria and many others. Children that are not vaccinated are more at risk of being infected with these life-threatening diseases. This is not safe for children in schools that are vaccinated because they are still being exposed to these diseases. A parent should be mandated to vaccinate their children before attending school.
Required Immunity Mandatory vaccinations for children in public schools have been the center of much debate since laws were first developed to regulate immunization. Fears from parents about side effects and adverse reactions have steered many away from wanting to vaccinate their children despite the numerous infectious diseases they prevent. These debates have gotten in the way of progression in schools for preventing the spread of disease. To me, the risks of not vaccinating children are far greater than the risks of adverse reactions.
Vaccines are able to prevent disease in a single child, but their usefulness to society lies in their ability to prevent outbreaks. Vaccines prevent disease through the concept of herd immunity. Herd immunity is the idea that a disease will have a harder time spreading if the majority of the population is unable to contract it (Martinez). For example, if more than 90 percent of people are vaccinated against measles, an outbreak is unlikely to happen even if a person in the community is infected (Oster).
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.
How likely is it for a child to get a disease? “Statistically, the chance of your child getting a vaccine-preventable disease may be relatively low. You are making a wager” (Childhood 1). Mainly, parents don’t want their children to be vaccinated in order to attend public school or tend to lack taking them on time to get the shots. A vaccination is being introduced to the body which will then produce an immunity to a specific disease.
Globally, vaccination has proved as a tremendous asset in curbing the spread of communicable diseases. Communicable disease such as smallpox, which is highly infectious, was thoroughly eradicated in the 20th century with the help of vaccines. Other notorious contagious diseases, such as measles, polio and rubella are also in the brink of eradication in this modern age through the widespread application of vaccines. By implementing mandatory vaccination, it’s not impossible to achieve that due to vaccination preventing new human carriers of disease from appearing. As vaccination prevents an individual from contracting a particular disease, the individual will not be a carrier for that disease, thus limiting the spread of the disease to others.
Vaccinations When it comes to vaccinations, there are many different opinions on immunizing a child, especially when that child’s parent has a strong like or dislike towards vaccinating. Immunizations have existed for at least a thousand years and as technology advances more, there are new vaccines being designed to help protect our children from contracting contagious and sometimes deadly diseases, such as Bordetella pertussis, polio, and even influenza. For decades, all 50 states have required that parents vaccinate their children against various diseases, including polio and measles, as a prerequisite to enrolling them in public schools (Ciolli, 2008). Enrollment in public school requires up to date vaccinations in order to protect the children and even the adults from contracting and spreading a disease, possibly causing an epidemic.
Vaccinations can simply save lives. It gets the immune system stronger to prevent viruses to affect our body. Vaccines do not make the body sick. Although, they do put a tiny dose of the disease in the person to strengthen the immune system to prevent an attack of a stronger dose of the disease. It is better to not have to deal with the disease at all than trying to deal with it after you
These are the most important reasons in my opinion that all people should be vaccinated. Disease, what is a disease? A disease is either a bacterial or viral infection that can be spread from person to person. If you are vaccinated for that particular disease you have a less likely chace of getting it. In highly populated areas diseases are much
Vaccinations can help prevent future diseases or viruses in the upcoming life of a child. According to an article from vaccines.gov, “Because of advances in medical science, your child can be protected against more diseases than ever before. Some diseases that once injured or killed thousands of children, have been eliminated completely and others are close to extinction- primarily due to stay safe and effective vaccinations.” Throughout the years more viruses have been prevented due to vaccinations in children. There has also been an increase in the amount of children that get vaccinations at a young age.