Argumentative Essay

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English: Argumentative essay

Effects of Anti-vaccination on the Nation

Public health has always been an important issue to the governments and authorities all over the world. There are some infectious diseases that pose threat to human life and sometimes may even result in death. One of the most common and successful public health interventions used since a long time is vaccination for controlling these diseases. The process of vaccination was first introduced in the year 1963 when a disease named measles killed almost 2.6 million people in the world. The development of vaccinations was a great achievement of the scientific age as by the end of that century the vaccine was successful in saving the lives of 21 million people. However, during the last decade vaccinations have lost their importance and their success and utilization has gone into reverse. The main reason for this is the misunderstanding of people about vaccination and its side effects. The World Health Organization (WHO) in a recent report states that there have been 90,000 measles cases in the initial six months of this year and the United States is facing the biggest outbreak of measles for 27 years. This is because of vaccination refusal by the people who have developed a mistrust in the process of vaccination believing it to be causing autism and other hazardous effects on human health. The World Economic Forum has pointed out digital misinformation related to the threats of vaccination. Social media platforms have also played a major role in shaping the ideas and beliefs of people by giving them negative and untrue messages about vaccines.

According to the WHO, “The benefits of vaccination greatly outweigh the risks, and many more illness and deaths would occur without vaccines.” People have started believing that vaccination has a highly increased chance of causing autism to children. They believe that the vaccines contain harmful toxins in larger amounts such as aluminum, mercury, and formaldehyde. However, many studies have been successful in showing that these are just myths about vaccination. There is neither any link of vaccines to autism nor they contain any harmful toxins. They improve the immune system of a child to make their body able to fight off the infectious diseases. The WHO stated that from 2000-2017 there has been a decrease of 80% deaths due to measles. It shows that vaccination is a much safer choice that can save a child from suffering deadly and serious illness. The substances that are present in vaccinations are not harmful; there quantity is very low and they cause no harm to the body of humans. The anti-vaccination can have many dangerous effects on the lives of people. It would make them exposed to a number of contagious diseases that may even result in the death of a child. Therefore, parents should stop believing in the myths spread about vaccination and research about the facts related to the positive outcomes of the process of vaccination.

CITATION Hof191 \l 1033 (Hoffman, et al., 2019) CITATION Dub151 \l 1033 (Dube, Vivion, & MacDonald, 2015) CITATION Bri191 \l 1033 (Bricker & Justice, 2019) CITATION Dre16 \l 1033 (Dredze, Broniiatowski, Smith, & Hilyard, 2016)

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bricker, B., & Justice, J. (2019). The Postmodern Medical Paradigm: A Case Study of Anti-MMR Vaccine Arguments. Western Journal of Communication, 83(2), 172-189. Retrieved 2019, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10570314.2018.1510136

Carter, A., & Pharm.D. (2019). Debunking the anti-vaccination myths. Retrieved from Medical News Today: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325371.php

Dredze, M., Broniiatowski, D. A., Smith, M. C., & Hilyard, K. M. (2016). Understanding Vaccine Refusal. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 50(4), 550-552. Retrieved 2019, from https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(15)00640-6/abstract

Dube, E., Vivion, M., & MacDonald, N. E. (2015). Vaccine hesitancy, vaccine refusal and the anti-vaccine movement: influence, impact and implications. Expert Review of Vaccines(1), 99-117. Retrieved 2019, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1586/14760584.2015.964212

Hoffman, B. L., Felter, E. M., Chu, K.-H., Shensa, A., Hermann, C., Wolynn, T., . . . Primack, B. A. (2019). It’s not all about autism: The emerging landscape of anti-vaccination sentiment on Facebook. Retrieved 2019, from Science Direct: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X19303032#!