Vaccination in UK - Research Paper

Introduction

Background of the Study

Vaccination, through its potential to achieve herd immunity, represents one of the most effective means to preventing outbreaks and epidemics of communicable diseases and associated morbidity and mortality, which from a public health perspective, is only second to the provision of and access to clean water supplies (Andre, et al., 2008). Indeed, vaccination has been able to markedly attenuate and even eradicate some of the most burdensome infections that societies have encountered and feared over the last few centuries, which has seen outcomes improve by more than 90% (Orenstein & Ahmed, 2017).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

However, the mass decline in the uptake of vaccinations, both in the United Kingdom (UK) and internationally, has led to the re-emergence of previously eradicated or controlled infections, such as measles, which has been due to societal concerns about vaccine safety - a problem that has been fuelled by the discredited research of Dr. Wakefield where the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was erroneously associated with autism (Jolley & Douglas, 2014).

Despite knowledge and awareness of the safety of vaccines and its ability to save more lives than any other intervention, many adults are still aversive to themselves or their children receiving immunisations and indeed, there is evidence to show that uptake is declining with incomplete immunisation leaving persons vulnerable to adverse outcomes (Maurice and Davey, 2010; Public Health England, 2019).

A recent report has revealed that more than 500,000 children in the UK have not been vaccinated against measles between 2010-2017, which presents a significant risk of the infection re-emerging endemically (UNICEF, 2019).

Adherence to childhood immunisation schedules tend not to be compulsory as this would have major moral ethical and legal implications, being a breach of autonomy and constituting battery, although some countries such as Latvia and Poland, have introduced legislation and policy to ensure some vaccinations are mandatory, in order to protect public health (Bozzola, et al., 2018).

In a recent debate among public and child health experts, compulsory vaccination was considered as important as legislation to ban tobacco smoking in public places to prevent excessive rates of lung cancer and chronic respiratory disease, and acceptable from an ethical position given that it can protect the health of others through the herd protection effect. Although mandatory immunisation was challenged by the notion that it would have the implication of alienating parents and lead to poorer education of children who would not be able to attend schools if they are not vaccinated (Draeger, Bedford, and Elliman, 2019).

Whilst this debate identified a small number of barriers and facilitators to compulsory vaccination in the UK, other factors contributing to this paradigm are not well known. The current investigation is aimed at evaluating the uptake of the vaccine among children in the UK for the purpose of engaging critical thought regarding the benefits of vaccination as well as reveal certain barriers that pose a challenge to vaccinations in the UK.

Problem Statement

UNICEF (2019) reports that half a million children in the UK were not vaccinated against measles between 2010 and 2017. The increasing instances of non-vaccinations are attributed to the sceptical views among factions of the society that erroneously link vaccines to various healthcare conditions such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and Autism (CHADD, 2018). Consequently, there is a popular pseudoscientific community on the internet and in social media that is increasingly spreading false information about the harmful effects of vaccines. One such rumour is that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism spectrum disorder (CHADD, 2018). Consequently, parents in the UK have since avoided going for vaccines in fear that they may have harmful effects on their children. Given that a spate of fear is rife in public discourse pertaining to the possible negative health implications of vaccinations, the reluctance by UK parents to vaccinate their children poses a great threat to the eradication of preventable diseases in the country (Jolley & Douglas, 2014).

CHADD (2018) reports that the UK government has revoked a medical license belonging to an author who published falsehood on the periodical The Lancet, which claimed that the measles vaccine caused Autism. The periodical later revoked the study as erroneous and invested in subsequent investigations that led to studies disapproving the former. That notwithstanding, a significant section of UK citizens are audience to a flurry of conspiracy theories shared on the internet and social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook where misinformation spreads like wildfire purporting that vaccinations are harmful to health (Jolley and Douglas, 2014). As such, the public in the UK who fall victim to such disinformation opt out of vaccinations for their children, which in turn, places the little ones at risk of contracting the disease and also being agents of spreading diseases that would otherwise be contained by vaccinations.

Presenting a balanced and objective critical review of literature on the benefits of vaccinations will serve to dispel rumours regarding the dangerous effects of vaccines. Hence, providing the members of the public with an informed perspective on the role of vaccines in eradicating the disease for the betterment of community health is paramount. This current study also will provide critical analysis of literature on barriers to mandatory vaccinations as achieving 100% vaccination outcomes in the UK will require making vaccines mandatory. Furthermore, the research provides a bottom-line on the implications of forgoing vaccines as a choice taken by parents who opt out of vaccinations for their children. In presenting the risks associated with non-vaccination, the research provides a solution to the problem of the declining rate of vaccination uptake in the UK by presenting parents with peer-reviewed research evidence on the benefits of vaccinating their children. The research intends that the evidence given as proof of the benefits of vaccines will ultimately make people in the UK embrace vaccinations with triplication of improving healthcare outcomes for UK citizens at large.

Research Objectives

The central aim of the research is to develop an investigation into the benefits of mandatory vaccinations in the UK by revealing barriers to the implementation of mandatory vaccines in the country. To this end, the research's goal is to provide an adept understanding of the gains to universal health attainable through heard immunization of the UK population.

The specific aims are:

• Determine the benefits of mandatory vaccinations of children to human health among UK citizens.
• Establish the barriers to mandatory vaccinations of children in the UK.
• Provide recommendations on how compulsory vaccination of children in the UK should be pursued.
• Provide recommendations on a framework for bringing down barriers to compulsory vaccination of children in the UK.

Research Questions

Fundamentally, the research asks the question of whether vaccination of children in the UK presents any benefits for the health of the UK population. Further, the research is also concerned w...