Children Vaccination Essay

Introduction

Ever since time in memorial, parents have been tasked with the role of protecting their young ones in the best way possible. This role has been difficult for parents in various parts of the world especially since the problems are caused by different issues and are aggravated by different factors. These complications could be borne by environmental factors, physical factors, epidemiological factors, as well as accidents. Some of the leading causes of child mortality in the world include diseases such as measles, whooping cough, common cold, etc., which have been tackled by different sectors. In fact, parents are usually by health organizations including the CDC to vaccinate their children to reduce their risks of acquiring these diseases. However, questions as to whether these are safe have been raised by parents especially since children are injected with the respective diseases to improve their immunity. As a result, this position paper will try to elucidate the extent to which these vaccines improve children's immunity.

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Advantages of Vaccination

For the vaccines to be accepted to be for the greater good of the people, some of the issues raised over the years regarding the safety of vaccines need to be addressed. However, before addressing the criticism leveled against it, an analysis of the core benefits of the process could offer good insights as to whether its use is worth the risk. One of the main benefits of vaccination that cannot be overlooked emanates from the fact that it holds the potential to minimize death resulting from viral diseases (Barnighausen et al., 2011). Smallpox was once a serious epidemic that claimed over one-third of people infected by the virus; however, vaccination helped control the disease. In fact, the vaccines helped minimize children mortality rate significantly serving as the proof that vaccines are a certified means of controlling epidemics including influenza, polio, measles, etc. Other than that, the children are also protected from diseases in the future that may deteriorate their quality of life (Barnighausen et al., 2011). For example, the vaccines against Human Papillomavirus (HPV) effectively protect individuals against contracting cervical cancer. Therefore, the vaccines protect an individual from future medical risks.

Parents also ought to vaccinate their children since the process could ultimately lead to community externalities beneficial for the people. Vaccines, in other cases, are considered to be an effective means of eradicating disease pandemics especially since it may help construct herd immunity. According to Fine (1993 as cited by Shapiro, 2017, 144) "if n infection persists, each infected must, on average, transmit that infection to at least one other individual. If this does not occur, the infection will disappear progressively from the population." People that might be too sick or weak to get immunized have handy immunity since it minimizes their likelihood to succumb to such problems. This serves to prove that a higher level of vaccination within the community may help protect individuals not vaccinated, as well as the entire community.

When deciding as to whether to get a child vaccinated, the consideration of its benefits against expenditures ought to be put into perspective to help the parents decide whether it is worth the risk. Shapiro (2007) indicates that vaccination is cost-effective considering that it saves on costs and saves considerably on the amount that would be incurred in the attainment of other health services. In his discussion, Shapiro cites Zhou et al. (2014) who studied the cost of vaccination against its economic advantages noted that the nine vaccines given to a child helped protect over 40 thousand children from early death as well as prevented over 20 million cases of diseases from happening. This serves to prove that the vaccines could effectively help save a family's finances in both direct and indirect medical expenditures. In general, the vaccines save a huge sum of money for the entire society, which means that the resources could be redirected to other social activities as well.

Getting children vaccinated also offers a number of remarkable benefits for the health workers in the sense that it can protect them from diseases and viruses. In general, working with sick patients puts the health professional at a disadvantage since they have to find a way to contain a disease despite the fact it may be very harmful. Other than that, the health workers could be protected from diseases especially if borne by the children if they also get vaccinated against such illnesses. This serves to prove that the doctors need to be well adjusted to the diseases irrespective of whether they are airborne or blood borne. Needlestick injuries are bound to happen at one point or the other within a hospital since the practitioners are only just human, where most of the people are unlikely to report. Therefore, the best way for the doctors to ensure that their patients do not suffer from this illness is by immunizing the stakeholders involved. Consequentially, the vaccines appear to be the appropriate solution for people of various ages to protect them against deadly diseases.

Disadvantages of Vaccination

Though the vaccines offer promises for disease-free futures, studies published in the past have expressed their discontent with the method. Some of the explorative studies have tried to elucidate on the correlation between vaccination and autism (Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines, 2012). Anti-vaccination movements from various parts of the world have been evoked by the worry that the issue may result in actual problems in the growth of the children in the future. In a study conducted in 1998 by Wakefield et al. found a link between the problem and vaccination by either the parent or physician with mumps or measles vaccination (Shapiro, 2016). In the study, twelve children between the age of three and ten were put into perspectives. Like any other children, they were normal until they started to show gastrointestinal symptoms including abdominal pains and diarrhea. This shows that they developed autistic behavioral disorders, which was connected to parents that had been vaccinated against mumps, rubella, and measles (Shapiro, 2016). Though such a study is compelling, it is quite important to note that such a study cannot be conclusive and more research should be done with a bigger sample size.

Some of the parents are worried that the vaccines that are administered to young children may are risky in the sense that they may end up causing the diseases that they are expected to protect people from. The vaccines are usually nothing other than the mild version of the condition that the body is expected to wade off easily (Habakuk & Holland, 2011). However, in the event that the body is not strong enough to form antibodies that can fight off these diseases, the child ends up contracting the infectious disease instead. These include deadly diseases like poliomyelitis, childhood diarrhea as well as hepatitis B. In such a case; vaccine could be a proven killer, which ought to be avoided in other cases.

Conclusion

Though the vaccines may appear to be evil especially in the case that they aggravate the chances of contracting diseased for which they are expected to prevent, they are seen as a necessary evil for the greater good. In other words, it is expected to offer greater benefits for a greater number of people, which from a utilitarian perspective is the right course to take. For that matter, mandatory vaccination ought to be upheld, and the parents continue being required to let their children get vaccinated against deadly diseases.

References

Barnighausen, T., Bloom, D. E., Canning, D., Friedman, A., Levine, O. S., O'Brien, J., ... & Walker, D. (2011). Rethinking the benefits and costs of childhood vaccination: the example of the Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine. Vaccine, 29(13), 2371-2380.

Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines. (2012). Adverse effects of vaccines: evidence and causality. National Academies Press.

Habakus, L. K., & Holland, M. (Eds.). (2011). Vaccine epidemic: How corporate greed, biased science, and coercive government threaten our human rights, our health, and our children. Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Shapiro, Y. (2016). Vaccinations: Weighing the Risks and Benefits. The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences, 9(2), 5.