Benefits Of Vaccination

In the late 18th century the discovery of the vaccine was made by Edward Jenner, an English doctor who worked with small pox (BBC 2014). As described by the World Health Organization (WHO) a typical vaccine contains “an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins or one of its surface proteins” (WHO 2018). The human body has an incredible immune system that then recognizes the agent injected into the body as foreign and triggers an immune response. From this, the body will remember the agent and can fight the disease if it were to encounter it again (APHA 2018). Over time medical advancements have been made to produce vaccines that have eradicated and reduced

Vaccination has played a vital role in the reduction of disease, death, and morbidity (Andre, FE. et al. 2008). Today, vaccinations provide many positive outcomes for both an individual and the collective population especially for children. From a public health standpoint, when a population is 95% vaccinated against a certain disease the elimination of that disease has been achieved (Andre, FE. et al. 2008). This means that there is no longer transmission of the disease locally but it is not eradicated globally. For example, the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine has been given to children in the United States to eliminate those diseases. When the population does not reach the 95% vaccination threshold more cases start to appear (Andre, FE. et al.

Vaccines are highly complex and many people feel that their lack of knowledge of what their contents are, steers them away. Some of the ingredients are considered harmful in large doses. For example, some polio vaccines contain 2-phenoxyethanol which is an antibacterial that is a skin and eye irritant. It can also cause headache, shock, convulsions, kidney damage, cardiac and kidney failure, and death (Pond 2011). Parents lack trust in the people and organizations who are testing the vaccines. The FDA may do multiple rounds of testing on a specific vaccine and say that it is safe but there is still a lack of trust (FDA 2011). This trust is hard to maintain when many children have faced adverse effects from vaccinations. In some cases, vaccines, have been linked to anaphylaxis, a life threatening allergic reaction which is usually about 1 per million (CDC 2017). With risks like this, some parents believe that the body’s natural immune system is capable of withstanding certain infections and being better at fighting them the second time. Parents continue to fight back with federal government and school districts to allow their children to go to school without being vaccinated because of their own personal parenting