Smallpox Vaccination Essay

Vaccines are undoubtedly one of the greatest medical developments in the health industry. The discovery of the smallpox vaccine by Edward Jenner was a groundbreaking innovation in public health during the time of the great epidemic. The smallpox vaccination, successfully eradicated the infectious disease that threatened the lives of people around the world. This was only the beginning of the new era of healthcare. Within the years, new vaccines helped save the lives of billions of humans yearly preventing them from disease that would have ended their lives. A recent report by the Centers of Disease Control (2014) confirmed that “vaccines given to infants and young children over the past two decades will prevent 322 million illnesses, 21 million

hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths over the course of their lifetimes” (p. 1). Vaccines are essential to one’s health and public health as well, vaccines are a major part of health and wellness that are regulated by the FDA. There has been a recent public outcry about the mandating of vaccines in children. All fifty states have a set of required vaccines that a child should receive before they are allowed to enter into schools. Within the 50 states that have vaccine requirements, 48 have religious exemptions and only 20 have philosophical exemptions. This angers parents who have chosen not to vaccinate their children because of religious beliefs or just with a non-religious stemming animosity against vaccinations. Therefore, society is being put in a critical situation; should vaccines become mandatory for students?
Vaccines are essential to one’s health and public health, as well. In a community, having only one vaccinated child does not serve as enough protection against deadly ailments that can arise and wipe out the entire population. It does not just take one vaccinated child to stop a spread of an illness. Even if the child is vaccinated, constant exposure to pathogens from sick classmates, neighbors or friends will decrease the effectiveness of the vaccine and cause illness. Children in the community have to receive the vaccine in order for there to be a sufficient amount of protection against the pathogen. This is referred to as herd effect or herd immunity. Herd immunity is defined as “the indirect protection of unvaccinated persons, whereby an increase in the prevalence of vaccine immunity prevents circulation of infectious agents in unvaccinated susceptible populations” (Kim, Johnstone, and Loeb 2011, p. 1). This means that when a high portion of the community is vaccinated, it can effectively put the spread of a disease to a halt. The disease will have only a few victims in its track before it is stopped. This was first recognized with the smallpox epidemic. Due to more than 80% of the population getting vaccinated, herd immunity was achieved, which contributed to a reduction of smallpox cases, then the complete eradication of the disease (Kim et al, 2011, p. 1). Herd immunity is essential for the members of the community who cannot receive certain vaccines, such as those members with weak immune systems, terminal illnesses or those who are too young to receive the shot (Vaccines Today, 2013, p. 1). Not getting vaccinated is not only detrimental to one’s health, but to society as well. This was proven in a recent 2011 measles outbreak in the United Kingdom. Nine unvaccinated children were diagnosed with the infectious and deadly disease which was transferred on to babies too young to be vaccinated because of the weak herd immunity (Forbes, 2011, p. 1). Herd immunity is crucial.
Vaccinations bring about many economic benefits to the society. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “[...] $1 spent on vaccination saves the public $6.30 in medical costs that would result from having to treat unvaccinated diseased individuals” (Every Child By Two, 2014). Vaccinations benefit both direct and indirect/societal costs of health care. Direct healthcare costs include those associated with the treatment, complications, and the after effects of diseases. Indirect costs include permanent disability to the amount of compensation for parents who have to take a sick day to take care of the ailing children. Each child saves the country “$13.5 billion in direct costs and $68.8 billion in societal costs” (Every Child By Two, 2014, p. 1) once they are vaccinated. Those who aren’t vaccinated cost the country 13.5 billion in direct costs and 68.8 billion in indirect costs. The economic benefits are a major factor into why vaccines should be mandatory. It is clear that more money is spent on the sick population than on the well population. This money spent becomes a waste when the sicknesses that are being treated are vaccine-curable. For the better of the country as a whole and to reduce nonsensical spending on curable disease such as pertussis, diphtheria, measles and polio, vaccines should be mandatory for those who are well enough to receive them.
Preventive health care consists of taking measures to prevent disease than to actually treat it when it occurs. The best way to combat disease is to stop it before it starts. Each year, millions of people in the United States die from preventable ailments. According to the CDC (2014) 3.1% of these deaths stem from infectious diseases which can be prevented with a simple vaccine (p. 1). Just as eating healthy and exercising are used to prevent obesity; vaccines should be used to prevent disease. Vaccines help to prevent diseases because they contain a small amount of the weakened form of the disease causing antigen that will not harm the person but will trigger the immune system to make memory t-cells that will attack the virus the next time it infiltrates the recipient (CDC, 2014, p.1). By speeding up the body’s natural immune process the child gains prevention from the disease without having to go through the process of actually having the disease. To save time, energy, resources and human lives, prevention of a disease through vaccines is the best choice. This can only be fulfilled through the implementation of mandatory vaccines.
In September 2013, 750 students were faced with suspension for not receiving the Tdap booster. It is baffling that children suffer such severe consequences, such as suspension (Hinton, 2013, p. 1), due to their beliefs of not wanting to be vaccinated. To chide families and children for practicing their right to deny vaccinations due to their beliefs, whether it is religious or philosophical, is unconstitutional. It is unethical for the government to intervene in the choices a parent makes for his or her child. The government does not have the right to tell parents what to do with their children or intervene with a parent’s health decisions for his or her children. Parents should have the right to refuse mandated school entry vaccinations for their children. Forcing parents to vaccinate their children is a violation of the United States’ 1st Amendment. For instance, families may practice religions in which vaccinations are a taboo. To make vaccinations mandatory for such parents would be going against their right to practice any religion they chose. Freedom of religion will be compromised with the mandating of vaccines.
The most common ingredients in vaccines are aluminum, amino acids, proteins, formaldehyde, benzethonium chloride, glutaraldehyde, MRC-5, DNA, MRC-5 cellular protein, human serum albumin, thimerosal, yeast extract/msg, egg protein, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and 2-phenoxyethanol (Vaxtruth, 2011, p.1). All the common ingredients found in vaccines have adverse effects on patients. Vaccines cause headaches, flu like symptoms, gastrointestinal issues, seizures and many more health issues for children that are injected with the liquid poison. Vaccines have been shown to do more harm than good which has been proven with the lawsuits filed for compensation to the victims of vaccines “The US Court of Federal Claims Office of Special Masters, between 1988 and 2009, has awarded compensation to 1,322 families whose children suffered brain damage from vaccines” (Huffington Post, 2009, p. 1). In fact vaccines have been the pushing force behind the spike of autistic children. To mandate vaccines will be telling parents to kill their children. Vaccines are not safe and parents should have the right to deny immunizing their children.
For years society wonder why there was an increase of autistic children, but now the cause has been found.

Vaccines. As of Feb. 1, 2009, over 5,500 cases alleging a causal relationship between vaccinations and autism have been filed under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in the United States Court of Federal Claims. Vaccines contain hazardous ingredients can cause brain inflammation, which can lead to disorders such as autism. “The vaccine additive thimerosal (found in most pre-1999 vaccines) has been associated specifically with the development of autism and is still found in certain meningococcal, tetanus, and flu vaccines such as the H1N1 vaccine” (Institute for Vaccine Safety, 2009, p. 1). Thimerosal is one of the many hazardous ingredients found in the flu vaccine and has been under public scrutiny for its linkage to autism. The additive contains mercury and when exposed to humans at high level can cause major health concerns including autism. Though the use of thimerosal has been eliminated in most vaccines it is still a prevalent ingredient in the flu vaccine, which people are urged to receive each year. The link to autism is growing stronger each time a child is vaccinated. To stop the influx of autistic children should gain immunity through natural process and not rely on vaccines to do the job the body does

regularly.