Ashley Ramos

Aisha Sidibe

English 21003

3 October 2018

Do We Need to Vaccinate Children?

Before the Food and Drug Administration was created, Edward Jenner created the first vaccine to prevent smallpox that would later revolutionize societies all around the globe. Although each year about 85 percent of children receive vaccines, in recent years child vaccinations have become a controversial topic mainly because families question if they are necessary. Do vaccines protect children or can they live healthy lives without having a single antigen injected into their body? A healthy life would call for the needs for vaccination.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a vaccine is a substance injected into the body that “stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific Today, before a vaccine is sent out to be tested on a population it is placed in a clinical trial that includes three phases to see the effects they have on a different group size. Phase one is administered to about 20-100 healthy volunteers to see if the vaccine is safe and if there are any serious side effects. Phase two is administered to several hundred volunteers to see short-term side effects and to see how their immune system is responding. Lastly phase three is administered to hundreds or thousands of volunteers to show if the vaccine is effective. Once the vaccine passes the three phases it is sent out worldwide to treat those in need.

As a child vaccines were one of my most hated things to go do. My mother forced me every single year to get vaccinated. The decision to vaccinate your child arises even before the child is born. During pregnancy mothers vaccinate themselves to prevent any harmful diseases from affecting their fetus. Sources from procon.org state, “Mothers who vaccinate, protect their children who have not arrived into the world from viruses that could potentially cause birth defects. If enough mothers in vaccinated communities take initiative, combined, they can help eradicate diseases for future generations.”  Mothers have the option to get the rubella vaccination during their pregnancy. If an expecting mother contracts rubella in her first trimester, it would allow her baby to have a heart defects, developmental delays and deafness due to a disease called congenital rubella syndrome. Therefore, this shows that vaccines have been helping mother and children steer away from unvaccinated birth defects. Before I was born my mother vaccinated herself to make sure I came out as healthy as I could be. Every year after I was born she would take me to my yearly physical to get my vaccinations. This has protected me from many harmful disease in which we can easily contract. Since I am vaccinated I am allowed into a school system and also allowed to participate in more activities because it is safer for me and those around me. I believe that all children should get vaccinated because studies show that children who are vaccinated live healthier and more active lives because we have a stronger immune system. Vaccination should be necessary to all because we never know new diseases that will appear, some other vaccinations may protect us against these unknown diseases.

While numerous families decide to vaccinate their children there are known cases in which parents reject the idea of giving them vaccines. Many parents argue that vaccinating their children causes them to not only make them worse but also can cause fatality. One big issue on vaccinations is that they contain harmful ingredients. Aluminum is used in some of our everyday vaccines which can cause neurological harm when too much of it is exposed to our body. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, “Bone disease has also been seen in children taking some medicines containing aluminum. In these children, the bone damage is caused by aluminum in the stomach preventing the absorption of phosphate, a chemical compound required for healthy bones.” Scientist have proven that back then, children received about 6 vaccines but over time have increased to 14-16 vaccines for children exposing them to a lot more aluminum than those children of decades ago. Although some parents opt out of vaccinations, I have seen that many children have been infected with infections just because they were not vaccinated. An example of this is chicken pox, as children we are given the chickenpox vaccination to prevent it but then there are thoses who never get the vaccination and are prone to get chicken pox when they come in contact with someone with the infection. Something that my mother has avoided vaccinating me for is the flu shot. It is not necessary to get the vaccination so my mother decided to opt out from it even if she is pro vaccination. When looking into unvaccinated children I found that unvaccinated children are treated very different in hospital because they can have infectious diseases. There will always be more precaution when dealing with the child because nobody want to get infected.

Parents ultimately have the option to vaccinate their children or not. It depends on their morals and what they believe is more safe for their children. Vaccines have changed the medical field, positively and negatively, in more ways that we can count. Some parents believe that vaccines can cause harm to their offspring, meanwhile others believe that vaccines are beneficial to their child’s health and wellbeing. Although uncertain to why parents have these preferences, we do know that it brings upon controversy into today within our population.

 

Works Cited

 

Children’s Hospital. “Global Immunization: Worldwide Disease Incidence.” Children’s Hospital

of Philadelphia, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 1 Dec. 2014.

ProCon. “Vaccines ProCon.org.” ProConorg Headlines, 2016, vaccines.procon.org/.

Robert W. Sears, “Vaccine FAQS: Aluminum Information from The Vaccine Book,”

(accessed June 11, 2014).

“Toxic Substances Portal – Aluminum.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, 21 Jan. 2015.

“Vaccines & Immunizations.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, 10 Mar. 2017.