Vaccines Are No Joke

While this comic might be a little extreme, it is a harsh reality. While our country and other modernized countries are in disagreement of required immunizations, other third world countries are envious.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, “More than 30 million children are unimmunized either because vaccines are unavailable, because health services are poorly provided or inaccessible, or because families are uninformed or misinformed about when and why to bring their children for immunization” (http://www.unicef.org/immunization/index_why.html).

Vaccination: the hidden truth

Here is a video that gives quite a bit of basic information regarding vaccinations.  It does not blatantly outright say to not get your children vaccinated but it certainly gives a compelling argument as to why you should not.  Interesting stuff:

Your Child’s Voice: Get Their Vaccinations On Time!

Babies cannot tell you that it is time to get a vaccine. It is a parent’s responsibility to stay up to date with the vaccines that they need and at what time that they need them.  You can create a personalized schedule here or refer to the general schedule below.

Doubting the Safety of Vaccinations: How safe are they?

 We support the necessity and mandatory laws of children getting their vaccinations, but there are many arguments out there that argue against the necessity of children’s vaccinations. One of the main arguments is that parents doubt how safe these vaccinations are.

A study done by Richard K. Zimmerman who did research on the different kinds of anti-vaccination websites, found that there were some published studies that came out that linked the MMR vaccination to autism and other diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, etc. and that most of this information was found on all of these anti-vaccination websites. Due to this, a lot of parents started to become very suspicious and reluctant to trust not only the MMR vaccine, but other vaccinations as well. According to a blog post by actor Jim Carrey, (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-carrey/the-judgment-on-vaccines_b_189777.html) he stated:

“In all likelihood the truth about vaccines is that they are both good and bad. While ingredients like aluminum, mercury, ether, formaldehyde and anti-freeze may help preserve and enhance vaccines, they can be toxic as well.”

This was the main information about vaccinations going around, that the mercury and formaldehyde was what was causing these diseases because they are toxic to people. Jim Carrey is correct in saying that these ingredients are toxic to people, and that the vaccinations are both good and bad. To refute his argument though, and the argument that these ingredients caused certain diseases, there have been studies that tested the causal relation between the MMR vaccine and autism. They concluded that there is no causal relationship, and proved that the MMR vaccine did not cause these children to get autism. (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/3/)  This article written by Amy Wallace on wired.com, included information saying that due to a lot of parents reading this misinterpreted information on the web, they didn’t get their children vaccinated, and there began to be an increase in cases of whopping cough, which vaccinations are supposed to defend against. “In the June issue of the journal Pediatrics, Jason Glanz, an epidemiologist at Kaiser’s Institute for Health Research, revealed that the number of reported pertussis cases jumped from 1,000 in 1976 to 26,000 in 2004. A disease that vaccines made rare, in other words, is making a comeback. “This study helps dispel one of the commonly held beliefs among vaccine-refusing parents: that their children are not at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases,” Glanz says.” (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/3/)

To conclude this post, a lot of anti-vaccination websites unfortunately have proven to fabricate and misinterpret information on vaccines. (“Vaccine Criticism on the World Wide Web”) Due to this, a lot of parents are hesitant to get their children vaccinated, which is a serious issue, if it is going to cause outbreaks in these diseases like whopping cough (pertussis) that have basically been gone until recently.

 

Why Do Children Need Vaccinations?

It is critical for children to receive core vaccinations to protect them from contracting the likes of measles, mumps and whooping cough, among other illnesses. However, not all parents agree.

Health officials in Massachusetts are just one demographic concerned that more children than ever are entering kindergarten without their state-required vaccines. According to an article by Cynthia McCormick, almost 1,200 kindergarteners entered school in Massachusetts this year without the required vaccines.

Unfortunately, this isn’t just a statewide trend. According to McCormick, the Centers for Disease Control usually receives about 60 reports of measles per year. This year that number is up to a terrifying 159 reports. Measles can be deadly for children, so why not vaccinate them?

While some children are exempt based on medical reasons, others are exempt for religious or philosophical reasons. When parents choose not to have their children vaccinated due to religious or philosophical reasons, the results can harm both their children and others. According to McCormick, public health officials say that “herd immunity,” a phenomenon which supposedly protects people who can’t be immunized, disappears when the number of vaccinated individuals falls below a certain level. This makes sense because the less people who are vaccinated, the more people who are open to contracting and spreading these otherwise preventable diseases.

The federal government should not allow people who oppose vaccinations for religious or philosophical reasons to prevent their children from receiving vaccinations. This is because these beliefs are just that – beliefs. While I strongly support the right of U.S. citizens to think and believe anything they want, the facts show that vaccinations are effective in preventing disease. Sticking with the example of measles, statistics show that when the measles vaccination was introduced in 1962, the frequency of measles started to decrease drastically.

Source: Vaccines.gov

Because facts can prove the effectiveness of vaccines, it is unfair for parents to not allow their children to receive vaccinations. I would encourage parents to do a significant amount of research before choosing to exempt their child from vaccinations. Organizations like the Centers for Disease Control provide information regarding the truth about different vaccinations, and with the facts to back it up. However when presented with these facts, some people will still choose to exempt their children from vaccinations. This is why with an ever-increasing population to protect, the federal government needs to consider a federal law requiring certain vaccinations for children.

Blog Topic: Vaccines for Children

Credit: San Antonio Metropolitan Health District

We believe that vaccinations are safe and effective in preventing disease in children. Not only do vaccinations prevent the child from developing a potential life-threatening disease, but they also prevent that child from spreading disease to friends and family members. Vaccinations are usually covered under health insurance plans, but are also federally funded, making them an affordable and easily accessible means of protecting a child. In the past, vaccines have reduced and even eliminated diseases that have affected other generations. Thus, by providing vaccinations to children, we not only protect them from diseases but we also contribute to the elimination of life-threatening diseases such as measles and polio.

The federal government currently has no role in recommending, approving, or enforcing policies that mandate vaccinations for children.  According to VaccineEthics.org, the federal government’s Department of Health and Human Services and its agencies – notably the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – “licenses new vaccines for use in the U.S., provides recommendations on populations for whom specific vaccines should be administered, finances vaccines for uninsured or underinsured children, monitors vaccine safety, and promotes vaccination nationwide.”

Only state public health officials and state legislatures can make the decision to add a vaccine to a state’s required vaccination schedule. In order to add a vaccine requirement, it is currently necessary for the legislature to pass a bill signed by the governor, or for a health department to issue certain regulations. This can be a tedious process and also causes variability in which vaccinations are required from state to state and who is required to receive them.  For example, North Carolina requires that home-schooled children receive vaccinations, but all other 49 states do not require this. Also, some states require only measles and rubella vaccines while other states require the mumps, polio, and tetanus in addition to measles and rubella vaccines.

Another concern is while all 50 states require various school-entry vaccinations, many parents opt their children out for reasons other than medical causes. These reasons include religious and philosophical values, concerns the shots themselves could cause illness, and a belief that allowing children to get sick helps them to build a stronger immune system.  In response to this, Hannah Dreier says public health officials state that, “regardless of why parents choose not to vaccinate their children, the result is the same: an increased risk of an outbreak of whooping cough or other communicable diseases.” It is very easy for parents to opt out their children, because they simply have to sign a document claiming their child as exempt.  While state legislatures can approve a bill requiring parents to discuss vaccinations with a pediatrician or a school nurse before they can opt out, the federal government cannot.

We believe that the federal government should hold certain responsibility in regard to vaccinations, and we propose that the government enact a federal law that would create tighter restrictions on receiving exemptions. This federal law should also create a standardized list of the required immunizations that all children should receive, based on advice from a collection of medical professionals. Increasing immunization rates for children is critical to controlling the outbreak of diseases.

We hope to show our readers that it is necessary for children to receive vaccinations, and the government should enact a federal law to enforce these vaccinations because of the importance of immunizations for children.

Thanks to the following sources for information cited in this post:

• VaccineEthics.org
• USA Today