In this paper I will be discussing the benefits/advantages as well as the risks/concerns about vaccines and the decision to vaccinate. Let’s start off with vaccines, what exactly are they? Vaccines help the body to fend off diseases, viruses, and infections and protect us to keep us healthy. I will first be addressing the benefits and advantages of getting vaccinated and why it is a good idea.
My first source was an article that I found about the measles vaccine that was updated in January 2018 and it was talking about how bad it was. So, if you didn’t get the proper shots against it there was no doubt you will get it and you will spread it. It is still a big problem today in different places of the world. That means that the people who do not have or do not get these shots go to these places, they have a better chance of getting it and bringing it back to their home. But it says a good way to stop it from spreading or becoming a bigger problem here in the U.S. is to think about getting vaccinated to keep yourself and everyone you care about safe. The authors of this website supported their information by having different links to help with what you were looking for or if you had any more concerns. It was very well put together and it was easy to see where I wanted to go. They also had some facts and statistics about the vaccine and how much it has fallen down to a lower percentage as years go on. I believe that the department of health services wanted to inform us about why it is a good idea to take the step to get vaccinated. But I also believe they started to try to persuade you by the end of the article because it was saying that it wont only just help you but it will help everyone else.
The next source that I found was an article by the U.S. department of health and the office of the director. The article talked about how vaccines changed the U.S. and it about how there didn’t use to be medicine to help prevent this kind of stuff so it was either you were going to be ok or you weren’t. But then vaccines came around which started to change in the matter of keeping people protected against diseases. It talks about how not only does it keep you healthy, it also is inexpensive so it’s a small price to pay to stay healthy. It says that as long as we all keep getting vaccinated that we will be ok. But on the other hand, all it takes is 1 person who didn’t get the shots to get another person who didn’t get shots sick then its chaos. In my opinion, I didn’t come across any bias in the article, it was just facts trying to let us know and make our own decision on the matter. They verify their information by using a chart that shows different diseases and how many people got sick from them and how much they went down over the years. So, they supported their facts by using a data table and using percentages to back up their points and information. They also are in contact with other institutes that work with vaccines and diseases to keep the information updated and accurate. I believe that this articles main goal was to inform and educate us on the benefits of getting vaccinated because not only did they say that it’s a good idea, they gave us data that says it a good idea.
For my final source I went to the CDC to see what they had to say about vaccines. The website was easy to navigate through and I was able to find exactly what I needed. The information I received from the website was last updated about a year ago on July 12 in 2018. What I read compared a lot what I mentioned earlier in the essay. That some of the diseases are slowly coming to an end because more people are deciding to get vaccinated. They say that we need to continue getting shots so that we can take the disease out of the equation. They said if people were to stop getting the vaccine, it will eventually resurface and the outcome would not be very good. The CDC verified their information by explaining to us that more than forty years ago, Japan had gotten rid of a disease and the shots were no longer a must. So when people stopped getting the shots, the disease came back and it killed many people. Their purpose was to inform us of why we need to continue to get vaccinated and why we need more people to also get vaccinated. Just because it is not a problem now doesn’t mean it won’t be a problem further down the road.
Now it is time to discuss the dangers, risks, and why it is bad for getting vaccines. There has always been a negative side of vaccines and not everyone agrees with it. Either because they believe that it only makes you more sick or because it goes against their personal beliefs. So I will be discussing my three sources on the negative side of vaccination. On the CDC website there is a link you can go to see what all the risks of getting some vaccines are and what the negative effects are. The website was last checked less than a year ago in July 2018. The website lists what could potentially happen if you were to get the MMR vaccine. There is a chance you will go in and no have issues with it during or after. But there is a chance that you can fall seriously sick and can have negative side effects after you go get the shots a few days or weeks later. The CDC justifies their evidence or their information by listing out all the issues they have seen after they gave out the shots. They also stated that basically any medicine not just vaccines can cause harm to you or your body.
In my next source from the Practo website, that was last updated in November 26, 2017. They made a list to show exactly what is wrong with vaccinations and why we should either not take them or stop taking them. A few things that were listed were that it breaks down your immune system, it can cause issues with your health later down the line, and they found it was also linked to Autism. They also put in there that the negative effects of it are one out of two people. They justify their own information by pointing out what the other websites from people who support vaccines fail to put into their information. Other than that I do not see any data or statistics to back up their claims about the side effects getting vaccinated can cause. I believe that this websites main goal was to try to persuade its readers to not get vaccines. I also believe that this website is biased because it is basically saying that you should not get vaccinated and they do not have any evidence to back their claims up with.
My last source is from the history of vaccines and was last updated in January 27, 2018. They talk about affects you can have after you receive a vaccine and even though there’s a small chance it sill says that it can cause death. They say that many of the vaccines you get there’s possibilities of either getting a little sick or having a major reaction to it. They justify their information by listing out every little thing that can happen and have links to explore some more. I believe that their goal was to inform us of the complications that can come up with vaccines. And if we have any more questions about it to call a doctor to get more information.
Now after doing some research about whether or not I will vaccinate my future children, I have come to the conclusion that I will definitely be vaccinating my future children. The reason is because I believe the good outweighs the bad for a few outstanding reasons. Even though some of the negative things I read about sound a little scary, I believe that in the long run my children will be better off and safer if they are vaccinated and protected from these diseases.
One of the reasons that many of the people are afraid or convinced that vaccines will cause autism in their child are because a lot of people say or write that it does without any proof of it happening. But I read on the history of vaccines website that scientists and even autism researchers say there is no correlation between getting vaccines and having autism. They were even running experiments and doing research on it and the two were just not connected. The autism researchers believe autism is caused by something completely different than the vaccinations.
So instead of focusing on the negative aspects of vaccines, I will continue to believe that vaccinating my children will protect them from diseases and from passing any on to another child. Even though there could possibly be an associated health risk for vaccines like getting the measles vaccination can cause you to have a fever, a sore arm or break out in a rash. You will be safe and you can protect your family and children in the long run. It’s a small price to pay down the road because you do not know how many people are refusing to get the vaccine so they are putting themselves and others at risk. My mom had vaccinated all my sisters and I when we were little and continued as we got older. My sisters also vaccinated their children when they were babies. I’d like to think that we all came out perfectly fine and we do not have any health related issues even though we all were vaccinated. Another negative side of vaccinating is that getting all of the shots can cause you to have a weak immune system so you will be at risk for more diseases. Which if I was not researching it or reading about it, I would think that makes sense and I would not want to do that. But since I am researching it, I have come across many trustworthy websites that say that is not the case. That there is no evidence of that actually happening. Even though this agreement over whether or not people should vaccinate will go on for many years, I will vaccinate my own future children. In my opinion, it’s the right thing to do not only for my own family but for other people’s families and children. It really is better to be safe than sorry down the road. The positive aspects and the benefits of vaccines are majorly outweighing the negative aspects.
