Living like weasels Critical Essay
Eighty seven percent of women and eighty one percent of men become parents at some point during their working lives (AUP. Org). That is a pretty high percentage of people whose lives change when they find out they are expecting a child. You suddenly become responsible for another human being. A part of that responsibility is making extremely important decisions that will affect your child’s health and wellbeing, such as deciding whether or not you want to get your child vaccinated.
This has been an ongoing debate for decades, but only in the last decade has it come at the forefront of American political discussion. Both sides of the debate have positives and negatives, but the real question Is: which choice Is ultimately better for your child? Whilst doing my research on this topic, I came across a very moving article by a mother who had been anta-vaccination but after doing some Intense research and collecting real science, switched over to the pro-vaccination side of the debate.
During her research, she stumbled upon statistics such as: Persists killed an estimated 200,752 people annually pre-vaccination era, but only 13,506 annually post-vaccination era. That is a 93% decrease in deaths. Hepatitis B killed 66,232 people annually pre vaccination era, but only 11,269 annually post-vaccination era. That is an 83% decrease. This mother is very happy with her decision to switch over, and even goes as far as saying “l was terribly wrong about vaccines, and I’m thankful my girls never caught not blindly following what others putting my trust in science, and discovering who were really my friends all along (Sandals). Not only does this mother believe vaccination is the way to go, but so do a large number of doctors. I found one specific article, written by a practicing physician, Robert Pearl, that was also quite convincing when I was gathering research for the pro-vaccination side of this hot debate. He opens his essay with a very eye opening statement that just breaks your heart: “There is nothing more disheartening for a physician than watching a patient die from a preventable cause (Pearl). ” According to Dir.
Pearl, the vaccines used in our day and age have minimal risks and safe track records. They undergo rigorous testing, and have proven their effectiveness in clinical trials (Pearl). A great reason for why people should be vaccinated is that it prevents the spread of extremely dangerous diseases. Before the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963, hundreds of thousands of people in the U. S. Contracted the disease annually; but since 1963, reported cases fell to less than a thousand a year.
Things began to change In 1998 when a British physician published a study that falsely asserted a investigation into the work revealed the the research was unethical and full of conflicts of interest. The article was filled with false data, and the health care risks described have been discredited. However, the damage had been done. In the U. S. , new measles cases have tripled as of 2013 (Pearl). I also found more than ten other reasons supporting vaccinations for children/people on the website Procom. Org.
Pro-vaccination supporters believe that no individual should have the right to risk the health of the public solely for the purpose of satisfying their personal moral, philosophical, or religious views. There is also the concept of “herd immunity’ within pro-vaccination: since some individuals that have been vaccinated may still get sick when exposed to infected individuals, 75% – 94% of the population (depending on the disease) must be vaccinated to achieve “herd immunity. ” When herd immunity is achieved the number of minimized individuals is high enough to prevent the spread of disease through the population.
In response to the claim that vaccines are linked to autism, pro-vaccine supports say that many studies, including one done by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, all reject the hypothesis that temporal, a mercury-based preservative in vaccines, causes autism. To furthermore provide evidence that there is no connection between autism and vaccines, in the case of Mead v. Secretary of Health and Human Services, on March 12th, 2010, the US Court of Federal Claims ruled that the “theory of vaccine-related causation [of autism]” is scientifically unsupportable.
Another main concern for pro-vaccination supporters is the spread of the human papilla virus (HIP). They believe that girls between the ages of 11 and 12 should be required to get the human papilla virus (HIP) vaccine because it protects against four strains of HIP – two of which cause cervical cancer. In the US, cervical cancer is the second leading cancer killer of women. The HIP vaccine can stop these deaths and should be given to all girls fore they become sexually active and have the potential to contract HIP (Procom. Org).
The case for pro-vaccination is extremely convincing. However, there is a whole other side to the debate: the anti-vaccination supporters. There are many people who completely believe that vaccines do more harm than good, and that vaccination should not be required for children/adults. According to the International Medical Council on Vaccination, among the top ten reasons to say no to vaccination are reasons such as “health cannot come through a needle,” “like bee stings and doses of incline, you can have many vaccines without a reaction… UT the next one can be deadly,” and that “each shot is Russian Roulette; you never know which chamber has the bullet that could kill you (Tenement). ” According to Dir. Sherries Tenement, who is a doctor of osteopathy and the director and founder of Esteemed II, vaccine safety studies are short and inconclusive, and are performed on children who are not ill and not on medication, in other words, by to all children and all adults, even those who have been chronically sick and on different types of medication, so we don’t really know until that happens what the rue clinical trial is around safety (Tenement).
Furthermore, Dir. Tenement defines the true meaning of effective in regards to its usage in the phrase “vaccines are safe and effective”. What effective really means, in this case, is that a substance is shot into a body, and then creates an antibody. There is a leap in assumption though, that simply because you have the antibody, it will protect you and keep from getting sick. In reality, a lot of information out there leads us to believe that we don’t really know what antibody means. Does they mean that you’re chronically sick? Does it mean you’ve had an exposure?
Does it mean you’ve had a certain level of protective antibody but you still get sick? Effective doesn’t necessarily translate into protecting you from getting sick (Tenement). Doctor Merely NAS talks about the Guardrails controversy in one of her interviews from a anti-vaccination point of view. She states that she doesn’t know how other doctors can prescribe something like Guardrails, when it is impossible to figure out what the risk benefit equation is (NAS). Her views support a claim I came across on the Procom. Org website, stating that young girls should not receive mandatory vaccination for HIP.
According to the organization, the long-term effects are unknown. Since approval, adverse side effects such as severe allergic reactions, Guilin-Barr© syndrome, spinal cord inflammation and pancreatic have been reported to the US Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System. Although these adverse reactions may be rare, they are not worth the risk since the vaccine only protects against two of the many strains of HIP that may cause cancer of the cervix I came across countless other supporting arguments for the anti-vaccinations side of this debate. Many parents hold religious beliefs against vaccination.
Forcing parents o vaccinate their children would violate the 1st Amendment of the U. S. Constitution which guarantees citizens the right to the free exercise of their religion. Vaccines also interfere with natural law and God’s plan for humanity. Disease is a natural occurrence, and humans should not interfere with its trajectory. Additionally, vaccines can trigger autoimmune disorders such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and Guilin-Barr© Syndrome (GABS). Vaccines can also cause brain inflammation, which can lead to death or permanent brain damage and disorders such as autism, ADD/ADD, and other developmental problems.
Their argument supporting the link between vaccines and autism states that the vaccine additive temporal (found in most pre-1999 vaccines) has been associated specifically with the development of autism and is still found in certain macroeconomic, tetanus, and flu vaccines such as the HI IN vaccine. Lastly, a main argument for the anti- vaccination supporters is that children should not receive the hepatitis B vaccine because Hepatitis B is a bloodstone disease and is primarily spread by sexual intercourse and intravenous drug use, therefore children are not at great risk of contracting the disease (Procom. G). Many decades. The purpose of this essay is not to sway you towards either side of the debate, but to inform you about the arguments and supporting reasons that each side has to allow you to form your own opinion and decision about whether or not to vaccinate your kids and/or yourself. Both sides of the debate have many convincing and shocking facts, but in the end, it comes down to who you personally agree with more, and which research that you find is the most credible and trustworthy. Good luck all! Works Cited Merely NAS on Vaccines. Dir. Null, Gary. Prod. Null Gary. Peer. NAS, Merely. 2012. Youth. Com.
