Vaccination

Vaccination

Vaccines have been an important part of public health for decades. Vaccination has been used for a long time to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and reduce the number of casualties and people affected by preventable diseases. Understandably, there have been concerns over the safety of vaccines. Recently, a movement of concerned parents has grown, arguing against vaccines, especially for children. Their concerns are related to the possible implications of vaccines on the users’ health, such as the development of autism and the possibility of over-vaccination of children. Whereas vaccinations are objected to by some claims that it causes autism, vaccinations save lives, reduce the severity of infectious diseases, and protect people from spreading harmful diseases.

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Vaccines are important because they save lives. The use of vaccination is associated with a significant reduction in mortality rates around the world. Some of the leading causes of death in the world are issues that could be prevented through vaccination; for instance, illnesses such as Tuberculosis, Malaria, Influenza, Poliomyelitis, and Hepatitis B cause the death of a large number of people around the world (Shapiro 5). These are all illnesses that can be prevented through vaccination. Therefore, if people continue to get vaccinated, the mortality rates will diminish. Vaccination can help to save lives when administered to individuals. A person who is at risk of infection gets the vaccine before exposure. Therefore, when their body gets exposed to the pathogens they have been vaccinated against, their immune system will be prepared to fight the pathogen. For people with no vaccination, the pathogen can be overwhelming for their systems leading to death or serious complications. Vaccines can also save lives by reducing the incidence of diseases. For instance, the World Health Organization estimates that vaccination has helped to prevent the death of over 6 million people in the United States (Andre et al. 141). Over eight infections could quickly kill people if there is no vaccination for the public’s protection. Therefore, vaccination should continue to be used to save lives.

Vaccines have helped mitigate the severity of diseases. Vaccination does not always mean a person can never get the disease they have been vaccinated against. In some cases, diseases may occur in previously vaccinated people. For instance, if a vaccine fails, a vaccinated patient may still get infected. The reason may also be secondary, such as weakening the vaccine’s effectiveness over time. However, in such cases, the disease will have a much milder effect on the body than on a person who has never been vaccinated. Studies have proven that illnesses’ severity reduced as people got vaccinated.

An example is a study done in Germany to investigate the impact of vaccination on acellular pertussis. The study found that whooping cough, one of the symptoms of the infection, affected vaccinated patients for a significantly shorter period than those who had not been vaccinated (Andre et al. 144). These findings were also confirmed in separate findings in a study done in Senegal. In the Senegalese study, the patients who had been vaccinated had fewer complications and skin lesions compared to the unvaccinated control groups. Milder effects of diseases in vaccinated patients have also been reported in other diseases, such as rotavirus (146). Therefore, vaccination is an effective strategy for limiting the impact of diseases on the human race. Taking vaccines might not mean that a person will never get sick, but if they do, they will experience the illness at a much lower severity rate compared to a situation where they were not vaccinated.

Vaccines prevent the spread of harmful diseases. When a good number of people in a given population are vaccinated, the spread of infection is reduced significantly. This is a concept known as herd immunity. Herd immunity protects the population from infectious diseases because a sufficient proportion is immune (Shapiro 5). Diseases usually require an agent to be spread within a given population. For a lot of diseases, the agent needs to be another person. For example, influenza spreads through droplets from an infected person, which are transferred on surfaces after sneezing, coughing, or transferring infected fluids onto surfaces. When most people are immune to this infection, the disease will have fewer agents to use for spreading. When the pathogen is shed from an infected person, it takes time before it can be spread to a person who is not immune (Shapiro 6). When the pathogen does not get to an agent in time, it is retarded, and hence, its effectiveness dies. Herd immunity has been used to stop the spread of several health issues. For instance, Measles used to be a significant problem in Sub-Saharan African countries. This was a leading cause of infant mortality in the affected areas. Vaccination was introduced in the areas. A vaccination rate of less than 70% of the population was enough to make the illness go away. Although the vaccine was not administered to everyone, they were protected from the decreased spread because most people are immune to the infection. Therefore, vaccination should be promoted to protect populations from preventable infections.

Despite the breakthroughs that have been done in vaccination research and use, there have been concerns over the safety of vaccines on children. A significant percentage of people believe that some vaccines can lead to the development of autism in children. The suspected mechanisms through which vaccines cause autism are not known, but there have been some speculations by people who do not support the practice. Some people against vaccines have claimed that the combination of rubella, mumps, and measles vaccines causes damage to a child’s intestines (Gerber et al. 456). This damage creates permeability that allows some proteins responsible for the development of autism to get to the child’s systems.

On the other hand, some claims have been made about the impact of vaccines on the brain and the nervous system. The vaccines are suspected of affecting the functioning of chemicals in the brain, which may cause autism in children (Gerber et al. 457). However, these claims have been disproven by professionals in medicine and researchers. Several studies have examined the possibility of a connection between autism and vaccination. The results of the studies show no significant connection between the two things. There is no proof that children who are vaccinated will develop autism. In cases where vaccinated children have developed autism, research shows that it would be hard to know the cause of their autism and whether it is connected to the vaccines. Many possible confounding factors could cause autism aside from the vaccination. Therefore, the idea that vaccination might lead to autism is not a good enough reason to support a lack of vaccination. The benefits examined above outweigh a limitation with no solid scientific basis.

In conclusion, vaccination has been an important practice in public health for a long time. Vaccination is a practice that should be supported because it reduces the risks of mortality, protects people from the spread of infections, and can be used to reduce the severity of infectious diseases on the body. Vaccination has helped to save millions of people from death from diseases that they could have prevented. Through vaccination, people are protected from infections that their bodies would not have been able to handle. Vaccination has also been used to protect entire populations from harm. When a good number of the population is immunized through vaccination, diseases lack enough agents to spread from one person to another, hence, protecting populations. Finally, vaccination reduces the severity of infections. When a person is vaccinated, a disease may still infect them, but the severity will be lower than if they were not vaccinated. There have been valid concerns over the safety of vaccines. Some claim that some vaccines are harmful because they cause autism. Research has, however, shown this to be a false assumption. Studies that have been done do not find valid connections between vaccines and autism. For children who are vaccinated and have autism, there is no way to know for sure that the vaccines caused the autism. Therefore, vaccination must be promoted to the population because its benefits surpass the potential risks involved.

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Works Cited

Andre, Francis E., et al. “Vaccination greatly reduces disease, disability, death, and inequity worldwide.” Bulletin of the World health organization 86 (2008): 140-146.

Gerber, Jeffrey S., and Paul A. Offit. Vaccines and autism: a tale of shifting hypotheses. Clinical infectious diseases: an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 48.4 (2009): 455-456.

Shapiro, Yossi. Vaccinations: Weighing the risks and benefits. The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences 9.2 (2016): 5-6.

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Argument Research Essay

Write an argument research essay (of at least 1500 words) about the working thesis: Whereas vaccinations are objected to by some claims that it causes autism, vaccinations save lives. Also, since vaccinations prevent the spread of harmful diseases, vaccinations have proven incredibly helpful throughout history.

Vaccination

Your thesis should be supported with at least three claims.

The essay should also address the opposite viewpoint.

Use at least three sources located via research but no more than six. These sources must be current. All source material used throughout the essay must be properly integrated and cited in-text per MLA guidelines. A corresponding Works Cited page must be submitted. Sources should not be older than five years old.

RUBRIC:

• The thesis is arguable, limited in scope, and not descriptive or factual. It presents an argument, demonstrates audience awareness, articulates the writer’s voice, and is established.
• Overall, the essay has a clear skeletal structure revealing an effective introduction/thesis paragraph, body, and conclusion that are logically integrated and internally coherent. The paragraphs progress logically and are not merely a collection. The transitions between paragraphs, sentences, and ideas are logical and smooth.
• An adequate exploration of claims moves the essay beyond summary/paraphrase and shows how the evidence supports the thesis. The thesis is maintained and fully explored throughout the essay. The essay employs appropriate rhetorical modes in a clear, engaged dialogue with the sources.
• The refutation paragraph(s) successfully acknowledges the opposing view.
• The essay uses reliable and appropriate sources to reinforce the thesis or to explore claims. The borrowed information is not used in a cut-and-paste fashion or used simply as padding. Current MLA guidelines correctly cite the information.
• The sentences and grammar produce a clear, fluent, and graceful essay. The writer deploys a variety of sentence structures to enhance the total effect of the essay and uses precise language that expresses complex ideas. The prose contains no substantial errors in spelling, grammar, or format.