Vaccines Should be Mandatory By the Government
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Vaccination is a highly controversial argument. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and doctors highly recommend it, but some people are against it. There are several good reasons both to get and not get vaccinated; some parents say that giving a child multiple vaccinations for different diseases at the same time increases the risk of harmful side effects and can overload the immune system (WHO, n.d.). Some parents also feel vaccines can cause illnesses, death, and possible long-term health effects. While some parents oppose their children getting vaccinated out of fear that vaccines can lead to long-term health problems, vaccines should be mandatory for everyone because vaccines help prevent epidemics, help protect those who can’t get vaccinated, and vaccines save lives.
First, vaccines should be mandatory for everyone because vaccines help prevent epidemics. Before the development of vaccines, according to the CDC, diseases like whooping cough, polio, measles, Haemophilus influenzae, and rubella struck hundreds of thousands of infants, children, and adults in the U.S. (CDC, 2014). Thousands of people died each year from them. After the development of vaccines, rates of the diseases declined, and most of them are practically non-existent in the U.S. today. Another example that shows that vaccines help prevent epidemics is, according to the CDC, in 1921, there was more than 200,000 cases reported and more than 15,000 deaths from diphtheria. After the widespread use of diphtheria toxoid in the late 1940s, only two cases of diphtheria have been recorded in the United States between 2004 and 2015 (Hamborsky, Kroger, & Wolfe, 2015).
Additionally, vaccines help protect those who can’t get vaccinated. According to the CDC, some people may not be able to get certain vaccines based on age, health conditions, or other factors even though they are vulnerable to illness. Vaccines can help prevent the spread of contagious diseases to them (CDC, 2017). This is also known as Community Immunity. People who are vaccinated are not only protecting themselves; they are also protecting the individuals in the community who are not vaccinated. Some of the people who may not be able to be vaccinated are infants, pregnant women, or immunocompromised individuals. These people first and only line of defense is other, vaccinated people, who when in the majority create a kind of protective shield which prevents them from coming in contact with the disease (Ideas.Ted.Com, 2015). When the majority of a community is immunized against a contagious disease, most members of the community are protected against that disease because there is little opportunity for an outbreak (Sawyer, n.d.). Another example that shows how vaccines help protect those who can’t get vaccinated is the Smallpox Eradication Program, initiated by the WHO in 1966. The Smallpox Eradication Program was initially based on mass vaccination. Early observations in West Africa, data from Indonesia and the Asian subcontinent, showed that smallpox did not spread rapidly, and outbreaks could be quickly controlled by isolation of patients and vaccination of their contacts. Transmission of disease usually requires prolonged face-to-face contact. The program, therefore, shifted to find cases, combined with contact tracing, careful isolation of patients, vaccination and surveillance of communications to contain outbreaks. The decision to move away from mass vaccination resulted in an acceleration of the program’s success (Lane, 2006).
Finally, the most crucial reason vaccines should be mandatory for everyone is vaccines save lives. According to the CDC, adults 65 years of age or older and children under five years old are at high risk for flu-associated complications and account for the majority of flu-related deaths. The seasonal flu vaccine has saved 40,000 lives during a nine-year period, from 2005-2014 (CDC, 2015). Another example that shows that vaccines save lives is, according to UNICEF; smallpox has been eradicated by vaccines, saving approximately 5 million lives annually (Unicef, 1996). Another disease almost eradicated worldwide is Polio. Since the launch of the global polio eradication in 1988, polio incidents have dropped more than 99 percent. The Americas, Western Pacific, Europe, and southeast Asia have all been certified polio-free. The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives. Polio is very close to being wiped out from the planet, thanks to the vaccine (CDC, 2016). There has been a 99% or more reduction of cases and deaths due to vaccines in 6 deadly diseases which are Diphtheria, Measles, Mumps, Polio, Rubella, Smallpox, and Tetanus. It is clear that after that the introduction of vaccines into the U.S. there have been many Americans lives that have been saved (Roser, n.d.).
Indeed, while some parents oppose their children getting vaccinated out of fear that vaccines can lead to long-term health problems, vaccines should be mandatory for everyone for three main reasons. First, vaccines help prevent epidemics. Second, vaccines help protect those who can’t get vaccinated. But most importantly, vaccines save lives. Vaccines are critical to the control and eradication of deadly infectious diseases. A life without vaccines would be a scary world.
Do you want to be in fear every day when you send your child to the daycare or school? I am not talking about fear from weapons like guns, but I am talking about stronger evidence that is related to your medical issues. Becoming ill is one of
the most feared things in our lives, so why do some people put themselves at risk of getting sick? This is a topic that I think is one of the most controversial issues and will never find a solution, but I want to persuade you in the right direction. You will always have the people who are pro and against vaccinations, called “anti-vaxxers”. Still, the question is, because of the importance of the safety of others, should treatment be mandatory?
So, even if you believe that you do not want to vaccinate your children, should the government force you to do that because of the safety of others? Yes, I believe that vaccination should be mandatory by the government due to the dangers of many illnesses in the world that can be passed on by nonvaccinated families.
When your children or your family are in danger, that is when there is a significant concern. This is where you will stop and fight for what you believe. There is a vast and major danger that comes from people who put your family at risk and decide that they do not want to vaccinate their family. I look at the matter with two major issues, the safety of the human race overall and the health of our children. You need to think of the safety of the human race because any small outbreak can be very damaging and can
even wipe us all out. “The World Health Organisation has declared the anti-vaccine movement one of the top 10 global health threats for 2019″ just when I read that it made me so nervous, and it should make you worried too. This is an issue that
lawmakers and even in the 2016 presidential election were brought up because of its seriousness. The only way to have something done about it and to avoid more dangerous and life-threatening issues, is to make it a mandatory law for all people to be vaccinated.
For example, there is another huge risk; there have been recent reports of the outbreak of measles. Measles is very damaging and has very very hurtful symptoms. We need to think about how people keep getting diseases that vaccines can prevent. Viral hepatitis, influenza, and tuberculosis are some of the leading causes of illness and death in the United States and cost big from the consequences of infection. These diseases are significant causes of disease, death, and disabilities. Also, it requires much
more to treat a disease than to vaccinate people and the people who get sick suffer so
Much and can even die. Illness, suffering, death, and cost are the main issues to look at when people want to put others’ lives at risk by choosing not to vaccinate.
Also, people travel the world and donate so much money and vaccine supplies for the unfortunate countries like the ones in Africa, to provide them with vaccines, that shows how important this matter is. It is not just important on a national level, but on a global level too. There is a huge demand for poor countries because all the experts know that if an outbreak happens, it can easily reach other countries and cause more problems that can be too late to control the damage. The world is changing, and we are
Getting exposed to new diseases and everything will get out of hand if more people will refuse vaccination. I wonder if an anti-vaxxer discovered they had cancer, would they treat it we just let cancer eat away at their body? I think it is not right when people refuse any type of care, especially when parents refuse responsibility for their children because the children are helpless and have no control over their choices.
I kind of understand why some people will think that vaccines are not necessary, because it can be from being told from people or from reading about it, however, as you can read and see all of the medical research, it has been proven that vaccines are
important.
I understand that there are a few cases that might have had bad experiences with a vaccine, but that is like saying that we should stop life-saving surgeries because some people die when they are in operation. Why would anyone ever think that vaccines can be harmful to a person’s immune system? For the people who complain about the side effects of vaccines, I would rather have simple side effects than having a significant disease that will kill me. That is wrong on so many levels because vaccines are supposed to expose the body’s immune system to a minimal dosage so that in case you get the disease, your body can fight it. So vaccines make a person’s body healthier.
Also, diseases start declining if the vaccines are given to everyone, but when you start having people who do not want to get vaccinated, they bring dangerous outcomes to society. I hope that anti-vaxxers are more open to finding out more information instead of just sticking to their belief with just myths and no real evidence supporting their beliefs.
In the end, I believe and have shown you with a lot of information that It should be mandatory for families to be vaccinated because it is irresponsible to put other people’s lives at risk. There is a large amount of medical evidence that proves that vaccines have done great things like prevented diseases and increased life expectancy. There is not that much significant evidence that shows that vaccination is dangerous. Especially the people who say that vaccines cause autism or illness, how can you know that? Many kids are born with autism, and many don’t even get a fever after getting vaccinated.
They are just taking one or two severe cases as an example. I think that anti-vaxxers need to look at the significant medical evidence and think about the dangers. They should not just think about it as a religious belief, or that religion does not want you to be vaccinated, no, religion wants you to take care of yourself, and others and medicine is a part of life. You can see as I have mentioned how the problems that come from not choosing to vaccinate can even affect a whole human race. We are here on earth to help make things better, everyone has been getting treated for years, and it is so selfish to put other people at risk if you choose not to vaccinate. If a person decides not to protect, then they should just live on an isolated island.
References:
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