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Childhood vaccination controversy essay
Medical ethics dilemmas immunisation of children
Argument against childhood vaccinations
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In his book, Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All, Paul A. Offit, M.D. presents us with a thoroughly in-depth look behind the veil of the vaccine controversy. Specifically here in the United States. Offit starts us off with the history of vaccinations giving insights into not just their creation but the controversy that has surrounded them since the beginning. We learn how these questions around safety and personal rights started and who have been the major decision makers in history. We hear about the groups and people that support vaccinations and those that do not.
Requiring vaccinations is a highly debatable topic in the United States today. An article by Ronald Bayer, “The continuing tensions between individual rights and public health,” is one of the most reliable sources in the case study. The author has a PhD from the University of Chicago and focuses his research on issues of social justice and ethical matters. Bayer has also previously been a consultant to the World Health Organization on ethical issues related to public health. This makes him very knowledgeable about the topic and a highly credible source.
Q-Tip, a rapper in the rap-group, A Tribe Called Quest, once said in one of A Tribe Called Quest’s very popular rap songs “Check The Rhyme,” ” Well it’s kinda simple just remain your own or you’ll be crazy, sad and alone.” By this, Q-Tip means that it’s our personality differences and our creative differences that belong to us and that we must protect them or else we’ll be “crazy, sad and alone.” He also means that these are factors that can Regardless, everyone has their own ways of expressing and protecting their individualism and humanity. When this is taken from us, it can make us do cruel things.
While there were others who discovered vaccination before Jenner, such as Benjamin Jesty (1737–1816), Jenner’s research was the “first scientific attempt to control an infectious disease by the deliberate use of vaccination”. Furthermore, Jenner was ardent in his investigation and was persistent in publicising his vaccine. For instance, Figure 1 below shows an extract from a letter written by Jenner himself on the instructions for vaccine inoculation targeted to those who were interested in the smallpox vaccine. By 1800, his effort led to a widespread use of vaccination in majority of the European countries. This new knowledge on inhibition of the spread of contagious diseases was a reason that led to the ideology that the “right of the individual to contract and spread infectious disease should be suspended”.
He was confronted with political cartoons that showed babies with cow-horns growing out of their sites. There was also a group of London physicians that attempted to disprove Jenner’s ideas, but ended up confirming his claims by inoculating thousands of people with their own cow-deprived vaccines. Widespread smallpox vaccination began in the early 1800s and was met with public criticism from sanitary, religious, and political objections. Similar to parent’s objections today, the vaccines induced a sense of fear because it was so unfamiliar to the world.
Since the ancient times, Smallpox has devastated the world, killing millions of people. Often referred to as the speckled monster, the smallpox disease originated in the new world when Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors and early english settlers arrived in the americas. Although there had been attempts to cure the disease, including variolation, (that came from asia 2,000 years ago), they all had a high risk of death. It wasn’t until 1796, when Edward Jenner, a english paleontologist came up with a new form of vaccine, it was called inoculation.
There has been a huge controversy concerning vaccination for children from many parents. Many parents had different reason on why they were for or against vaccination. Some for religious purposes, concerned about the long-term side effects. Most parents feel that vaccine is poison. The fact that doctors are injecting something into their child can be terrifying.
Over the last decade, there has been a movement to stop the requirement of vaccinations. Many parents want the right to make decisions for the well-being of their own children. They do not want the government to come into their household and tell them how they are to raise their children. They argue that the vaccinations are not safe and are not necessary because most of the diseases we mandate vaccines for are no longer prevalent. However, it is important that children be vaccinated to stop these diseases from reappearing.
Technology improvements in the vaccine production lead to higher quality and safety (Stern and Markel 2005; 61 2) [3]. Overall, at least 26 diseases can be prevented, or their incidence reduced, by vaccination Gone, it appears, are the days of sending a healthy child to play with a child afflicted with chickenpox. Variolation, known as inoculation with variolous matter, was the method of treatment for smallpox as early as the 10th century CE in China. Advances in treatment remained the same for over 700 years until Edward Jenner developed the first vaccination for smallpox. Edward Jenner was a country doctor living in England in the last 1700s.
For example, some parents are reluctant to vaccinate their children against diseases like Hemophilic Influenza if they won’t be attending daycare. While daycares require this vaccine, this deadly disease is a threat to all children, even if they do not attend daycare (Bronfin 3). People who oppose mandatory vaccinations for public school children point out parents concerned with their children being around unvaccinated children could move their child to a private institution requiring immunization (Murphy 2). This reasoning would only add extra stress for families trying to find schools for their children and could cost parents more money than just being able to send their child to a free public school without fear. The next most controversial concern parents have regards the ingredients in some vaccinations.
Karl Marx, one of the most controversial economic thinkers of past and current times. His legacy as one of the fundamental revolutionary minds behind communism with labels of a rather dangerous philosopher has earned him a reputation that will last centuries to come. Karl Marx first became famous for his revolutionary ideas after his time at the University of Bonn in Berlin. In Das Capital, Marx discusses the struggle between classes and presses for a need in revolution for economic justice. He saw that the worker was being treated unfairly.
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.
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.
Modern medicine provides people with the ability to protect themselves from the world’s most fatal diseases. Merely a century ago, it was not uncommon for a child to die as a result of diseases such as polio, pertussis, and tuberculosis. Today, it is highly unlikely for a person to contract these diseases, let alone die from them. However, refusal of vaccinations has been increasing throughout the years due to the anti-vaccination movement. This movement declares mandatory vaccines unconstitutional and vaccinations overall as the cause of autism.
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.
