Vaccinations Should Be Mandatory For All Children

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Recommended: Unvaccinated children in public schools

As a child, everyone remembers having to get shots. My first memorable experience with shots came at age four. I didn’t understand why I needed shots. All I knew was this sharp thing was going to be stuck in my arm and it was going to hurt. Before I got my four year old shots I received my first set of vaccines, vaccines that people are now claiming are dangerous. Research shows that vaccination rates fell. MMR (mumps, measles, and rubella) vaccine rates dropped from 93.5% to 90.6%, tetanus, whooping cough and diphtheria rates dropped from 87.2% to 85.4% in 2009. (Kluger) Why are vaccination rates dropping so significantly? Pediatrician Dr. Robert Frenck says “Very articulate, very good-looking movie stars or personalities … are giving out information about how bad vaccines are,” People are now relying more heavily on blogs, talk shows, and the rumor mill for their medical advice. People now believe that vaccinations cause autism (Kluger). Even though there are some legitimate concerns, vaccines are safe because they do not cause autism and they have almost eliminated many diseases.

Due to vaccines there are certain diseases that are no longer a problem. One of these diseases is smallpox. Due to movement made in 1967 by the World Health Organization (WHO) many people who could not afford to be vaccinated received the smallpox vaccination. Over one billion doses of the smallpox vaccination were administered. Just ten years later, in 1977, the last known case of smallpox was reported. It occurred in Merka, Somalia in a hospital cook named Ali Maow Maalin ("Ali Maow Maalin Survives the Last Endemic Smallpox Case.")

Due to vaccines the numbers of cases of meningitis due to the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) have ...

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...: The Autism Rumors Take a Toll | TIME.com

Null, Gary, and Martin Feldman. "Some Worries About Childhood Vaccinations Are Legitimate." Should Vaccinations be Mandatory? Ed. Noël Merino. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. At Issue. Rpt. from "Vaccination: An Updated Analysis of the Health Risks—Part 3." Townsend Letter: The Examiner of Alternative Medicine 293 (Dec. 2007): 117-120. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 7 Nov. 2013.

Offit, Paul A. "Vaccine Risks Are Outweighed by the Risks of Not Vaccinating." Should Vaccinations be Mandatory? Ed. Noël Merino. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Rpt. from "Common Concerns About Vaccines." Vaccines: What You Should Know. 3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web.

Pearson, Cam. "How I Gave My Son Autism." The Thinking Moms' Revolution. N.p., 02 20 2013. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.

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