Munoz 1

Nicole Munoz
ENC 1101
Professor Lewis
22 November 2017

The Vaccination Controversy

For a while now people have been a little skeptical on the topic of vaccinations and if

they should or should not receive vaccinations and the health risks involved. This controversy is

not a matter of whose right and wrong, it is educating the public on how important it is to receive

the vaccination. False rumors and research have led to this unfortunate misunderstanding. Kids

should be required to receive vaccinations because it prevents against a population getting wiped

out, side effects against the vaccine are rare, it protects future generations against a catastrophe,

and it saves people money in the future as well.

For starters, it helps to know what an actual vaccine is before stating facts about why

anyone should receive them in the first place. Vaccines as stated by the book The Gale

Encyclopedia of Prescription Drugs are an injection of a weakened or dead microbe in a

person to stimulate the immune system against the microbe and prevent disease (927-931).

What does that mean? The doctor receives from a lab the dead virus or disease (which has been

tested thousands of times before even being released to the public) in a little vial and then the

doctor injects the dead/practically dead version of the disease inside of the patient. Then after

some time as again stated by The Gale Encyclopedia of Prescription Drugs the body builds

immunity to the disease or virus by creating anti-bodies (927-931) that can recognize what the

virus looks like and destroy it the second it enters the body. Normally these vaccines do not carry

any threat especially since every patient is given a dead virus. There are cases where a person

could experience a side effect, but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website

lets individuals know that Vaccination is very safe and effective; serious side effects following
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vaccination, such as severe allergic reaction, are very rare. If a side effect were to occur it is

more manageable than if a person were to contract the virus or disease itself. Normally doctors

offices and pharmacies have shots to give a person if they were experiencing some kind of

allergic reaction or a bad response to the vaccine. They also know how to react when something

of that nature were to occur, they are trained to deal with situations such as those.

In addition, receiving a vaccine protects the population from getting wiped out. For example

an article on Statista that shows the statistics of before and after vaccinations were common

Diphtheria cases before vaccines- 21,053 and Diphtheria cases after vaccines- 0. Then the

same statistic website states Measles cases before vaccines- 530,217 and Measles cases after

vaccines- 61 and finally the most shocking statistic Varicella cases before vaccines- 4,085,120

Varicella cases after vaccines- 449,363. There are people that actually believe that vaccines do

not do or accomplish anything and that they should not be forced to give their kids a shot. People

also do not understand that vaccines drastically reduce the number of cases, and how much it has

actually helped not only the United States, but all over the world. Just looking at Varicella alone

is shocking; the number of people infected dropped 3,635,757 persons, thats about 1% of the

United States population. It does not seem like much, but thats just one of the many vaccines

offered to the public, and those numbers add up, just think about how many people the black

plague wiped out. Things like that can happen again if people are not careful. Avoiding receiving

a vaccination because of a false claim would be a pretty good way for something like the black

plague to start up again. Corinne McLeod states in a public health journal that 1 in every 200

cases of polio results in irreversible paralysis, particularly in cases of children under 5 years to

age 2 (8-10). That can all be avoided just by a simple injection, and allowing the body to create

antibodies against it. People are unaware that vaccines are there to protect people from receiving
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a life threatening illness, which could leave anyone paralyzed. It is better to be safe than sorry

with something as serious as the inability to walk. It could also protect the future generations

from having to deal with diseases. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states

Immunization protects future generations; if we continue vaccinating now, and vaccinating

completely, parents in the future may be able to trust that some diseases of today will no longer

be around to harm their children in the future. In other words if people continue to vaccinate

their kids today, parents in the future will not have to worry about half of the diseases everyone

has to worry about today. With a big population comes big responsibility, tons of new diseases

come out every year and scientist are doing everything they can to prevent a population from

getting wiped out, they are just trying to protect the people. Anytime a scientist comes out with a

new vaccine to protect from a new viruses that pops up they are trying control how far that virus

actually gets.

Next, preventing future catastrophe and getting individuals those vaccines. Most people

understand how serious it is to actually receive these vaccines and do not care of those minor

side effects. Others are reading information off of non-credible websites and Facebook

allowing those misleading facts to alter their opinion on giving their kids or themselves a

vaccine. For example the journal article Anti-Vaccination and Social Media Warning asserts

Nurses and midwives found promoting anti-vaccination could risk their registration status and

face prosecution by national regulatory authority (12). Even a journal article intended for those

in the health field is warning people to not give out misleading information. According to that

quote nurses can lose their jobs for telling people not to receive a mandatory vaccination. People

are trusting doctors and nurses to tell them the right information and guide them from making a

bad decision, to make sure they are not going to hurt their kids, and as Corinne McLeod states in
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her journal article asserting unscientific claims that a vaccination is unsafe and unhealthy, as

well a threat to the personal freedoms (8-10). If people cannot even trust what the doctors and

pharmacist are saying who can they trust? Everyone is trusting that a doctor is going to tell

people the correct information and if giving them or their kids a vaccine is a good or a bad idea.

Finally, vaccines can save people money in the future. For example if an individual gets a

shot for measles it costs about $100 if the person receives the vaccine from Walgreens (as stated

on the Walgreens website). Most of the time insurance will pick up half and sometimes the

whole tabs depending on the insurance the individual has, but assume they do not have any.

Imagine if that same person would have to go to the hospital and get treatment for the actual

virus itself. Hospital fees run extremely high and would be more than if the person decided to

just get the shot instead. Robert L. Schwartz, a professor at a university states in a journal article

the risk to an unvaccinated child of getting measles is much higher than the chance the vaccine

will cause injuries (17-18). Not only are people hurting their own children by not getting them

vaccinated, but those same people are hurting the kids around them, if those kids contract a virus

they can easily spread it to younger kids who are not old enough to receive the vaccine or a kid

who was about to receive it. Schools are making things like this mandatory because it protects

kids and the environment from being quarantined. Parents argue that schools should not make it

mandatory, that they should have the freedom to choose what to do with their own kids. When

the protection of everyones kid gets involved, schools have to step in to make sure everyone is

safe. Making it mandatory to receive the vaccine is a safety procedure to ensure that no one gets

polio and becomes paralyzed or get measles and have a serious flu that could result in death. Ms.

McLeod states in her journal article In 2013, there were 159 cases of measles in the United

States, almost three times the typical yearly number of measles cases in the US, and only 26% of
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these cases were imported from other countries (8-10). This indicates that 74% of those measles

cases are from the United States from people not receiving the vaccinations. Bringing up Polio

again, think about being paralyzed what kind of financial stress that would put on someones

family. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says it better when they say some

vaccine-preventable diseases can result in prolonged disabilities and can take a financial toll

because of lost time at work, medical bills or long-term disability care. It would cost so much

more to be treated of a disease rather than to get the vaccine preventing it, it is a one-time cost,

and insurance would covers it most of the time. People also would not have to worry about

putting stress on the family or disability care.

In conclusion, kids should be required to receive vaccinations because it prevents against a

population getting wiped out, side effects against the vaccine are rare, it protects future

generations against a catastrophe, and it saves people money in the future as well. Now that the

government is revoking the licenses of those who spread false facts about vaccines and schools

are requiring them, the future is protected from those who believe otherwise or want to hurt the

population. People just need to understand how vaccines came into existence in the first place so

that the worry about the harm they cause can be put to rest. It is understood that some parents

just do not like being forced to have their kids receiving a vaccine, but the schools would not

force anyone to do something that is not safe, they are trying to protect the kids. The one time

cost with vaccines as well prevents future costs to the hospital because of a life threatening

illness. Vaccines should continue to be pushed onto kids to prevent future catastrophe and to

protect kids from becoming extremely ill from something that could have been prevented.
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Works Cited

"Anti-Vaccination and Social Media Warning." Australian Nursing & Midwifery Journal, vol.

24, no. 5, Nov. 2016, p. 12. EBSCOhost,

db15.linccweb.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9

h&AN=119005483&site=ehost-live.

Davidson, Tish, and Denise M. Linton. "Vaccinations." The Gale Encyclopedia of Prescription

Drugs: A Comprehensive Guide to the Most Common Medications, edited by Kristin

Fust, vol. 2, Gale, 2015, pp. 927-931. Gale Virtual Reference Library,

db15.linccweb.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.db15.linccweb.org/ps/i.do?p=GVR

L&sw=w&u=lincclin_mcc&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CCX.... Accessed 16 Nov. 2017.

Dossier, Statista. Statistics on Vaccinations. United States, Feb. 2017.

Kostal, Susan. "A Vaxxing Dilemma." ABA Journal, vol. 101, no. 7, July 2015, pp. 17-18.

EBSCOhost,

db15.linccweb.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9

h&AN=103743760&site=ehost-live.

McLeod, Corinne. "Rising Anti-Vaccination Attitudes in the United States: A Plea for

Paternalism." Texas Public Health Journal, vol. 66, no. 4, Fall2014, pp. 8-10.

EBSCOhost,

db15.linccweb.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9

h&AN=99247398&site=ehost-live.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Five Important Reasons to Vaccinate Your

Child. Vaccines.gov, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 11 Oct. 2006,
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www.vaccines.gov/more_info/features/five-important-reasons-to-vaccinate-your-

child.html.