The Truth about Vaccines

The Truth about Vaccines

Living a healthy lifestyle can have many different meanings. Whether it is what you eat, where you live, how much you work or how you deal with mental blocks. Living a healthy lifestyle can benefit families in many different ways. Vaccines have become a huge epidemic throughout the nation in recent years and some parents fear the health and safety of vaccinating their children. Parents recently have shown a lot of concern with the pros and cons of how it could affect their child in a negative way. Some also worry vaccines are the reason why children all over the world are born with a common disability known as autism. In recent years, many parents have said that vaccines are not a necessity in society nor are they healthy for children or adults.

Vaccines have proven to save children's lives and nations as well. In America, Polio was once the most feared disease. It caused death and paralysis across the nation, wiping out millions. However, thanks to intense research and vaccinations, there have been no reports of Polio in the United States (HHS, 2017).  Polio was a common disease for children to catch back in the 1950s and it seemed that it would never go away. In an article titled Wiping Out Polio: How the U.S. Snuffed Out A Killer published in 1952, nearly 60,0000 children became infected with the virus. Due to this virus, many children suffered from becoming paralyzed and a few thousand even died. Polio did not have a way of deciding whom it was going to effect but it was very common amongst kids (Beaubien, 2012).

With Polio still out there, adults and even kids will still have a chance to obtain it. In Wiping out Polio: How the U.S. Snuffed out a Killer, it also states The virus remains endemic in only two parts of the globe: northern Nigeria and the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Poliovirus vaccines campaigns were being used throughout the countries of Nigeria and Pakistan. During this study, many parents feared the possible outcomes and consequences when receiving the vaccine. However, once clinical trials later showed that the IPV boosts a child's intestinal immunity tremendously. When children receive vaccines, they have a better chance of living a healthy and longer life then those who go without some vaccines. For example, HPV happens to be a very common disease. HPV occurs when teens or adults become exposed to any form of sexual intercourse i.e. commonly passed through anal a vaginal sex.  When parents administer the vaccine at a young age, it is nearly 100% effective in protecting the child throughout their life from HPV (Holloman, 2018).

When children are born, they are able to produce more antibodies then the average adult due to the fact their immune systems are made up of new glands, organs, cells and different fluids. Immunizations and vaccinations are able to protect us once we have received them, even after many years. The Centers for Disease control and Prevention stated,

The first time a child is infected with a specific antigen, the immune system produces antibodies designed to fight it. This takes time . . . usually the immune system can't work fast enough to prevent the antigen from causing disease, so the child still gets sick. However, the immune system remembers that antigen. If it ever enters the body again, even after many years, the immune system can produce antibodies fast enough to keep it from causing disease a second time. This protection is called immunity (CDC, 2017).

When a child receives a vaccination, the child is given a small but strong enough dose of the antigen that will help their body naturally produce the antibodies that leads to their immunity. They have found that this should be any and every child's first exposure to a disease no matter how big or small.

Some adults fear that vaccines can reverse the way they perform while in the body. While it is true that you can get sick from having a vaccination, it is not common. The most common side effect could occur in one per several hundred thousand vaccinations (Dohenny, 2014). Dohenny also states that combining vaccines have been used without adverse side effects dated back to the mid 1940s. To put into perspective, Sanjay Gupta said that humans are 100 times more likely to be struck by lightning then to have serious allergic reaction to a vaccine (Gupta, 2015).

Many factors come into agreeing or disagreeing with the idea of vaccinations. Adults believe that the ingredients added to the vaccinations are harmful and dangerous to their children and selves.  Some say they do not want to vaccinate their child due to the ideas that vaccinations cause autism.

          The idea of Autism being an outcome of vaccinations did not take place until the early 1990s. Dr. Andrew Wakefield went on to study if there were commonalities between the vaccinations, autism and bowel disease. With further research they found it to be very strenuous and time consuming and it required a lot of funding. He speculated that the vaccine had a possible chance of causing an internal issue that would later turn into bowel disease and possibly autism (Thompson, 1995). British researchers began to look into the outcomes and symptoms of vaccinations. In 1998, Andrew Wakefield along with 12 others published a case that had evidence that suggested children exhibited autism symptoms after receiving treatment. However, Dr. Richard Horton who discovered that lawyers strictly funded Wakefield's research challenged this in 2010. Horton stated that Wakefield's research was very flawed and led many to believe vaccinations could be causing their child neurological damage and intestinal damage (Laurance, 2004). In 2011, Brain Deer who at the time wrote for the BMJ reported that he reached out to those parents and children who were considered affected by the vaccinations and it turns out it was all a lie (Deer, 2011). When Deer did his research, he noticed that at most, two children experienced gastrointestinal or autism-like symptoms, not the eight that has been recorded. In addition, Wakefield's claimed that all children were normal before the vaccinations, though when looked into the children's backgrounds two of those students were considered to have developmental delays. When discovering this research it leads many others to research into the connections to autism and vaccinations. Scientific and medical experts will say that there are no connections to one another, especially with all the extensive research they have done.

Before the middle of the last century, diseases like whooping cough, polio, measles, Haemophilus influenzae, and rubella struck hundreds of thousands of infants, children and adults in the U.S (CDC, 2017). In today's age, America and many other countries do not see that due to the vaccinations that previous generations have provided. Vaccine-preventable diseases are spread from person to person, often in common places. For example, kids playing on the playground, children or adults who are not vaccinated can affect adults walking around the office or families going to the farmers market in these locations.

The CDC declared that nearly 12?? million Americans throughout the years of 1964-1965 had been infected with the measles. Today, most doctors have never seen a case of measles. During this time, researchers were coming up with highly effective vaccination programs that could control measles. Doctors and researchers also declared that measles were eliminated from the United States around the early 2000's and with this news, came great hope for many women dealing with pregnancy.

When women become pregnant, a mother is expected to receive vaccines that not only protect her but protect her unborn child as well. Mothers expecting or women trying to become pregnant are at huge risk when being exposed to someone who has a virus. However there are vaccinations that most, if not every, doctor will recommend to expecting mothers that will help both the mother and baby during pregnancy. In an article called How Vaccines Protect Moms (and Babies) During Pregnancy and Beyond, written by Beata Mostafavi published by the Michigan Health news states, Pregnancy changes your immune system Having the flu during pregnancy can cause problems for your pregnancy, including affecting the growth of the baby, causing fetal distress, leading to an early delivery and increasing the chance of a cesarean section. Expecting mothers are not able to maintain a healthy amount of antibodies for their growing child without some vaccinations during pregnancy, therefore doctors highly recommend these vaccinations not only for the babies safety but for the mothers as well. Many vaccinations help protect pregnant women from common illnesses. The flu vaccine for example is a vaccination many women fear about receiving. However, if not administered it can cause life-threatening issues for both the mother and baby i.e. whooping cough.

Women fear that receiving vaccinations could harm their child though; Tdap and flu vaccines are considered safe for pregnant women and their unborn child. When receiving vaccinations during pregnancy, the antibodies you are receiving will respond to the vaccine being injected and transfer to your child. It provides both protection for you and the baby. With that being said, it can also protect the baby for several months after delivery (Mostafavi, 2017). So not only are expecting mothers protecting themselves but also their babies even after their born, due to the antibodies mothers are able to provide for their child while in the womb.

          Nations face potential threat everyday whether its war, what you eat, whom we see and what you take in. When participating in vaccinations, not only are people receiving their own health benefits but they are also providing everyone around them with protection as well.  With that, women rely heavily on vaccinations to protect themselves and the child. Parents worry about the consequences of giving their children vaccines but with intense study and research doctors have shown that the common fears parents have are less likely to happen when all the right precautions are taken into consideration. Receiving vaccinations at a young age will benefit your child more than it will hurt them and those who are not providing their children with vaccinations put every other child. Providing the correct healthcare for children and adults is a huge necessity and should be required to be taken more seriously; especially where some diseases are starting to emerge again.  

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