Vaccines for Kids: Arguments For and Against Vaccination Essay

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Introduction

Vaccines for children are a controversial issue in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) informs health practitioners to give twenty-nine doses of nine vaccines for children aged zero to five (1). All 50 states legalize immunization for kids getting into a public school (2). Conversely, the authorities of states have backing from the US federal law. Opponents argue children’s immune system can eradicate infections naturally and render immunization unnecessary. They also say injecting children with debatable vaccine ingredients may cause paralysis, seizures, and death. However, vaccines for kids have prevented many illnesses, such as rubella, smallpox, whooping cough, diphtheria, and polio (3). Vaccinations save the lives of millions of children, and adverse reactions to immunizations are rare. My position is vaccines for kids are a safe medication, and I recommend it as a significant health development.

Vaccines Cause Fatal Side Effects

Opponents argue all vaccines possess life-threatening and allergic issues to kids. The rotavirus immunization causes intussusception, a bowel blockage requiring hospitalization. Diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and MMR inoculations have side effects, including coma, long-term seizures, and reduced consciousness (1). Chickenpox injections exacerbate pneumonia symptoms in kids aged zero to six years. Similarly, flu serums are associated with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a condition where an individual’s immune system affects the peripheral nervous system (3). Vaccines bring about serious to fatal effects on children; therefore, the CDC should not recommend them.

Vaccines Have Harmful Ingredients

Furthermore, vaccines for kids’ antagonists fault them for having toxic compounds. Aluminum is present in inoculants, and an excess amount of the element causes neurological impairment. Formaldehyde is available in some vaccines, yet the component is cariogenic, leads to central nervous depression, and lowers cognitive functions (3). Glutaraldehyde, a dental and medical equipment disinfectant, is also notable in DTaP vaccinations. Children exposed to the compound are at risk of asthma and respiratory complications. Flu vaccines have cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTMB), which an antiseptic compound. CTMB risk factor for skin, respiratory, and eye irritations among vaccinated kids. Polio and DTaP serums contain 2-phenoxyethanol to act as an antibacterial compound. On the other hand, the component triggers headaches, kidney damage, convulsions, and cardiac failure. Flu shots contain yolk proteins harmful to children allergic to the egg proteins. Hepatitis B serums have yeast protein, which stimulates irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), asthma, stroke, and seizure (3). Vaccinations should not be mandatory because they insert potential pathogens and toxic ingredients into children’s blood systems.

Vaccine-Targeted Diseases are Harmless

Similarly, challengers claim there are no rationales to vaccinate children because most infections no longer exist. The CDC noted fifty-nine and nine death cases linked to diphtheria from 1980 to 2016 (3). Tetanus has caused less than 11 deaths per year between 1989 and 2014 (2). The CDC reported only 32 deaths associated with rubella from 1979 to 2016 (2). The United States declared it eradicated polio in 1979 (2). Other diseases immunization targets do cause serious harm to children (2). Chickenpox is a rash with blisters and lotions, acetaminophen and cool compresses can treat it. Measles is a rash-causing runny and fever, which requires adequate rest and fluids intake (1). Rubella is a virus triggering low shivering, and acetaminophen is a sufficient medication (3). Probiotics and hydration effectively handle rotavirus. Vaccines are unnecessary because alternative medical approaches to the targeted diseases are already available.

Vaccines Save Lives of Kids

However, my position is that vaccines are beneficial because they save children aged zero to six years old. Most childhood vaccinations are 90%-90% effective in disease prevention (3). Immunization saves 2.5 million kids from preventable illness per year, equating to 285 children protection per hour (1). The CDC estimated childhood vaccine injection stopped 419 million diseases, 26.8 million hospitalizations, and 936,000 premature death of kids born from 1992 to 2016 (3). Measles serums lowered deaths linked to the disease by 74% (3). Vaccines for kids are safe and acceptable health developments because they halt diseases, lower hospitalizations, and decrease premature deaths.

Vaccines Use Nontoxic Amount of Ingredients

I trust medical professionals use a low quantity of aluminum, formaldehyde, and thimerosal components on inoculants to avoid their harmful effects in large doses. Infant formulas and breast milk expose children to more aluminum than vaccines (3). The CDC removed thimerosal, a mercury component, to trace amounts in shots for children below six years old. Vaccine ingredients are safe because there are rare side effects on immunized kids (2). Severe allergic incidences occur in one per a million vaccinations. Combined measles, rubella, and mumps serums have caused no side effects since its inception in the mid-1940s (3). Scientific relationships between flu and asthma episodes or Bell’s palsy do not exist. Therefore, vaccinated children in communities help eradicate preventable diseases for the future generation. Women inoculated against illnesses, such as rubella, polio, and rotavirus, have reduced chances of passing the ailments to newborns.

Vaccines Have Eradicated or Lowered Cases of Preventable Diseases

I trust health professionals no longer vaccinate children against smallpox in the US because immunization led to its disappearance. The United States reported the last smallpox incidence in 1948 (3). Vaccines lowered 16 316 deaths associated with polio in the twentieth century to zero US cases in 2012 (3). Rubella killed 47 745 individuals per year, but vaccinations reduced the chances by 99% from 1987 to 2012 (3). Globally, vaccination programs declined polio occurrences from 350,000 to 500 cases between 1988 and 2014 (3). The paralytic polio form is not present in the US, but the virus is still evident in Pakistan and Afghanistan (1). A person can incubate the poliovirus for years with symptoms and accidentally infect an unimmunized child (1). Vaccines have played critical roles in eradicating preventable diseases among kids in the US. However, the medication is necessary to protect kids at risk of polio, rotavirus, and measles from developing nations.

Conclusion

Opponents and proponents of vaccines for kids may look conflicting, but they are both valid. Vaccination antagonists fault them because they have life-threatening allergen, contain harmful ingredients, and target relatively harmless diseases. However, I support vaccines for kids because they are effective in preventing infections. Potentially harmful components of inoculants, such as aluminum and formaldehyde, are in nontoxic amounts. I acknowledge vaccines as the safest medical products in the current generation. They are necessary for children since they exhibited limited allergic effects and triggers no respiratory or cardiac complications in kids. The controversial issues on vaccines for children arouse flaws and doubts about immunization ideas I previously believed. I see arguments against and for children immunization as non-adversarial. They help in the development of an extensive frame of reference and improved ideas about vaccinations for kids.

Sources

Elbow Peter, 2006, The believing game and how to make conflicting opinions more fruitful. Web.

Anders Hviid, 2019, Measles, mumps, rubella vaccination and autism: a nationwide cohort study. Web.

ProCon.org, 2020, Should any vaccines be required for children? Web.

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IvyPanda. (2022, July 3). Vaccines for Kids: Arguments For and Against Vaccination. https://ivypanda.com/essays/vaccines-for-kids-arguments-for-and-against-vaccination/

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"Vaccines for Kids: Arguments For and Against Vaccination." IvyPanda, 3 July 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/vaccines-for-kids-arguments-for-and-against-vaccination/.

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IvyPanda. (2022) 'Vaccines for Kids: Arguments For and Against Vaccination'. 3 July.

References

IvyPanda. 2022. "Vaccines for Kids: Arguments For and Against Vaccination." July 3, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/vaccines-for-kids-arguments-for-and-against-vaccination/.

1. IvyPanda. "Vaccines for Kids: Arguments For and Against Vaccination." July 3, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/vaccines-for-kids-arguments-for-and-against-vaccination/.


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IvyPanda. "Vaccines for Kids: Arguments For and Against Vaccination." July 3, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/vaccines-for-kids-arguments-for-and-against-vaccination/.

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