Friday, February 27, 2015

Vaccinations: Good or Evil?

Vaccinations: Good or Evil?

Currently, there is a common question in publications about whether parents should vaccinate their children.  There are no federal laws that mandate vaccinations, but all 50 states require children to be vaccinated before entering public schools.  The debate of vaccinations is very public and there are arguments for and against vaccinating children.  

Individuals that are against vaccinations believe that vaccinations and immunizations are harmful for their children, and cause more issues than they do good.  Vaccines do have risks of bad reactions that can be fatal, but these risks are miniscule compared to how successful vaccines can be.  Vaccines do contain harmful ingredients that can have harmful effects on the human body.  Some common side effects are asthma, learning disabilities, diabetes and autism.   Another argument against vaccinations is that parents should have the right to choose whether their child needs to be vaccinated, and that no one should have the ability to force them into vaccinating their children.  It can also be found immoral to inject their children with drugs that are not in the body to begin with.  Some American citizens simply don't trust government agencies to produce the drugs in immunization protocols.  As well, some believe that they shouldn't have to vaccinate for diseases that aren't prominent in today's society.  
On the contrary, many people fight for vaccinations to be mandatory.  They respond to the arguments of people against mandatory vaccinations with their own facts and logics.   Vaccines can effectively save more lives than the amount of lives that would be saved by avoiding vaccinations due to side effects.  As well, even if some diseases aren't prominent in the United States because of the vaccinations, and they could easily be reintroduced by visitors or an increase in vaccine resistant diseases.  The diseases that are on their way to being extinct are only like this due to vaccines.  Also, some illnesses such as measles are returning and causing deaths.   These deaths could be stopped by immunizations to stop the spread of diseases, and protect future generations.  Organisms face many mutations that could make them vaccine resistant, but with scientists continuously doing research they could develop new vaccines and save more lives in the process.  The CDC reported that about  about 32 million cases of childhood illnesses are prevented per year, while 30,000 cause reactions and a small amount of the reactions are potentially fatal.

For people to vaccinate their children, they need to trust the vaccines as well as the people creating and administering the vaccines.  As well, it is important to let parents make their own choices but understand the consequences of not vaccinating their children.  It could not only be detrimental to their children, but also the children theirs come in contact with.  More information about the pros and cons of vaccinations can be found at:

Posted by Victoria Bortolussi (Group C)

No comments:

Post a Comment