Ashley Ramos

Aisha Sidibe

English 21003

26 September 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?

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.

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.

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.

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 prefrences, 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.