Child Vaccines Should Be Optional - Essay Example

Running Head: Child vaccines should be optional Child vaccines should be optional of the of the Child vaccines should be optional Children are one of God's best gifts to people, and watching their children grow is one of the best pleasures people enjoy during their life course. For this reason, parents must take good care of their children during their early years as they are vulnerable to many diseases due to their weak immunity. Vaccines are harmful to children, cause unnecessary illness, and have negative side effects. There are many diseases infecting children that may lead to death such as the polio disease. Scientists found a solution to this problem by injecting a tiny sample of the virus into the child's blood. By doing this, it stimulates the immune system in order to fight the disease if the child catches it. This is known as vaccination. McTaggart contradicts that vaccines are helpful by to children by pointing out that vaccination problems far outweigh those of going unvaccinated. Therefore, there are many questions concerning the safety and effectiveness of vaccines as opposed to those of going unvaccinated (McTaggart 1992, 1-5). Vaccines can cause complications that are more harmful than those of going unvaccinated or even the disease itself. Professor of epidemiology at the university of Washington, Dr Russell Alexander, points out that the people that determine the risks of vaccination does not compare it to those risks of being unvaccinated (Miller 1993, 9-9). This means that the research done by the panel, which said vaccination risks are 'too small to count', contains many weaknesses. McTaggart links the appearance of learning disabilities, autism, and hyperactivity to the beginning of the mass vaccination programs. Thus, vaccination is directly related to many diseases; and some are still unknown. McTaggart adds that the mumps vaccine has proved to be a direct cause of seizures, meningitis, deafness, and encephalitis. These diseases are extremely dangerous and cannot be cured. Dr J Anthony Morris, an immunization specialist formerly of America's 'National Institutes of Health' and 'Food and Drug Administration' states that in several of the studies, the measles vaccine strain has been recovered from the spines of the victims. This shows conclusively that the vaccine caused the encephalitis' (McTaggart 1992, 5-5). As a medical authority, Doctor Morris relates the measles vaccine to deadly diseases; such as encephalitis. On the other hand, the risks of catching the disease for unvaccinated children are similar, but less, to the risks of developing harmful complications due to the vaccine. Therefore, vaccination is more risky to your child than going unvaccinated. In addition to the safety problems, vaccines have also proven to be ineffective among many children. McTaggart reasons the current debate about vaccination and states that the measles portion of the triple shot is not working. This means that children who receive the MMR shot, also known as the measles, mumps, and rubella, are not completely immune against these diseases. McTaggart adds that the cases of measles have increased during the last decade. Similar to measles, McTaggart states that rubella's portion of the vaccine showed failure to prevent this fatal disease (McTaggart 1992, 13-13). Therefore, the fact that vaccination is not effective is common in many diseases. According to the 'Centers for Disease Control Morbidity and Mortality' in 1985, about 80 percent of measles cases occurring in children in America were in vaccinated ones who were vaccinated at the appropriate age (McTaggart 1992 3-3). Therefore it has been proven that vaccinations are ineffective against some diseases. Vaccine supporters defend vaccines by claiming that vaccines caused a reduction in the number of disease cases among children since its invention. However, this claim is wrong. It lacks an important side, which is the number of disease among children increasing or decreasing before the vaccine invention. By reviewing the child disease history before the vaccines invention, we see that the numbers of child-disease cases were already decreasing before the invention of vaccines. It was just a coincidence that vaccines were invented at around the same time they were decreasing. Nowadays, the number of child-disease cases are beginning to grow again due to the increasing use of vaccines. (Jeanes 1977, 18-9). Getting vaccinated weakens the child's immune system and over time will make their body more susceptible to diseases because their immune system get more and more tolerant with every vaccine. Vaccines are not the reason for the decreasing number of child-disease cases, as it is steadily increasing nowadays (Jeanes 1977, 18-9). Vaccinated children face more problems than the unvaccinated children. Vaccines are hazardous to the child's health and could cause even greater complications than the problems of the disease itself. In addition to safety problems, vaccines have proved to be ineffective against many diseases such as autism, Alzheimer, heart disease, and against speech disorders. Castro infers in 'House and Home' magazine that childhood illness gives the child's immunity a chance to develop stronger and more resistant to diseases (Castro 1994, 1-7). Therefore, vaccination should be abolished, it is not safe nor it is effective against many diseases. The flu shot provides the best way to reduce everyone's chances of getting the influenza virus, but previous research has shown that it does in fact cause all sorts of different side effects. Most people who receive flu shots acquire the common side effects which are; redness and swelling around the injection site. Five to ten percent of people have mild side effects such as a headache or low-grade fever for 24-48 hours after vaccination. The low grade fevers may be an offshoot symptom of Meningitis coming from the flu vaccination. Other side effects include; life threatening allergic reactions, chills, fatigue, muscle aches, and soreness. The severity of the symptoms can alter from person to person. There is years and years of evidence adding up to the fact that flu shots do in fact have harmful side effects. For the majority of people, getting the flu is not very serious. The harmful side effects of the flu vaccination are not worth getting over trying to prevent the mostly harmless illness. Young, healthy adults generally recover from the flu within a week and are fine. Each year the flu shot affects 10-20% of the US population; over 100,000 people are hospitalized. Of that 100,000 people; 20,000 people die. Polyneuritis, a side effect of the flu shot is defined as inflammation of many or all of the peripheral nerves (Kantor). Polyneuritis can occur on rare occasion when given the flu vaccination, which may affect the hands and feet, and in some cases have paralytic symptoms. Some symptoms include tingling or altered sensation in the affected area (Goetz 2003, 1085-1090). One of the worst side effects of the flu vaccination is the Guillain-Barre Syndrome, otherwise known as GBS. (vaccination.inoz.com) GBS is a disorder in which the body's immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system. Symptoms of this disorder include weakness or tingling sensations in the legs, sometimes going to the upper body. These symptoms often worsen and eventually cause muscles not to work, making the body almost fully paralyzed. Thirty-one percent of reported cases of GBS were in people over 60 years old, 11% were under 30 years of age, and 58% were between 30 and 59 (Goetz 2003, 1085-1090). "The child appeared to be developing normally until 15 months of age, and then he was given the MMR vaccine. Only days after receiving the vaccine a rash broke out, his development stopped, he began to have violent seizures, which became more frequent - sometimes every few minutes. At nine years old, he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at Southampton General Hospital. Doctors twice tried to break the cycle of convulsions with an anesthetic, each time he was brought round, the fits started again". The little boy was then transferred to London Great Ormond Street for brain surgery. Samples of his brain tissue where analyzed, the results showed traces of the Measles virus "consistent" with the vaccine rather than the "wild" strain. Tissue also from the same boys' intestine showed the vaccine. (Wilson 2004, 75-88) Most people think that getting their children vaccinated helps protect them against awful diseases, but in fact by doing this, parents are putting their children in more danger. Vaccines have harmful and sometimes permanent and fatal side effects. They cause unnecessary side effects, and in some cases the children get the disease or illness that they are getting vaccinated from. Vaccines are harmful and should not be mandatory. References Castro, Miranda. 'Measles, Mumps, Chickenpox, The natural way to nurse them.' House and Home Apr. 1994. Goetz, CG. (2003). Textbook of Clinical Neurology. 2nd ed. St. Louis, Mo: WB Saunders; p1085-1090. Influenza or 'Flu vaccination. Available at: http://www.vaccination.inoz.com/flu.html Jeanes, B., The hazards of immunization. (1977). The Australasian Nurses Journal [Australas Nurses J], Nov; Vol. 7 (4), pp. 18-9 McTaggart, Lynne. The WDDTY vaccination handbook. 1992 Miller, Susan Katz. 'Vaccination risks are 'too small to count'. '. New Scientist 25 Sept. 1993: 9. Wiles CM, Brown P, Chapel H, et al. (2002). Intravenous immunoglobulin in neurological disease: a specialist review. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. Apr; 72(4):440-448. Wilson, Chrts., Intersecting discourses: MMR vaccine and BSE. Science as Culture, Mar2004, Vol. 13 Issue 1, p75-88 Read More