Before the creation of vaccination, people died mostly from infectious diseases but now in the United States individuals are dying from chronic disease (Christine R Palmer).  The word vaccine was coined by the doctor Edward Jenner from England. Jenner is famous for his 1796 cowpox experiment on an eight-year-old boy named James Phipps. Jenner’s theory was that if he injected Phipps with pus from a cowpox blister which was commonly found on milk maids, the child would become immune to the smallpox disease. His theory was proven to be correct when James Phipps became immune to smallpox after exposing the child to smallpox and not contracting the disease. Vaccine comes from the word vacca-, which in Latin means cow, and this is a reference to Jenner (Offit). Jenner was the pioneer for vaccinations which led to the global eradication of smallpox hundreds of years after his initial experiment. Smallpox is the only vaccine that is no longer frequently given because the disease is no longer a threat (Offit). Vaccinations are an important part of society to thrive, but there has been a decrease of children being vaccinated due to false information that contributes to parents forming personal beliefs against vaccinations. To combat this, vaccinations should be highly required to protect society.

Vaccinations are not only beneficial to the individual receiving it, but to the population as a whole. Vaccines work because they contain the antigen of a disease. The antigen is the weakened disease which is located inside the vaccine. It is weakened enough so that an individual cannot contract the disease, but so that your immune system creates antibodies which in turn lead to an immunity against that disease. Vaccinations expose children to the disease without exposing the symptoms and the risk of death. The Centers of Disease Control states that vaccinations are the greatest public health achievement of the 20th century (Measles Outbreak — California). Each vaccine that has been created has saved countless lives and allows people to avoid the suffering that a disease can bring. For example, in 1995 the chicken pox vaccination was created. The number of case per year since 1995 has declined drastically from four million a year to 400,000 cases a few years after being introduced. Even though the chicken pox vaccine has done wonders to help decrease the number of cases per year, chicken pox is still far from being eliminated (Offit).   A writer for New York Times talks about her first-hand experience with chicken pox when she was younger. She describes chicken pox as “robb[ing] children like me of many weeks of school, [which] left long lasting physical and emotion scars.” This whole experience can now be prevented by a simple vaccine (Brody). 

The measles vaccination created in 1963 is yet another example of the impact of vaccinations. Since the creation of the vaccine, it has nearly eliminated the disease in the United States alone. Before the vaccination, measles caused birth defects like blindness, deafness and even cognitive problems. Because of the vaccination, this disease can be prevented and is able to help prevent birth defects if pregnant individuals encounter someone with measles (Offit). Unfortunately, the United States has recently experienced measles outbreaks because of the decrease of vaccination. The most recent outbreak was the 2014 California’s Disneyland which cause a multi-state outbreak. The outbreak was mostly caused by someone from overseas visiting Disneyland and it took a total of 42 days before the infectious period was over, meaning no more outbreak related to measles cases (Measles). If the individuals at Disneyland would have been vaccinated against measles the outbreak could have been prevented.   

Some individuals have decided to opt out of vaccination on the belief that herd immunity will prevent their children from contracting a disease. This idea can be seen in an example of a measles outbreak in an Orthodox Jewish community in California this year. Many of the parents in the community did not vaccinate their children because they believed that herd immunity would protect them. Herd immunity is the concept of protecting a community against certain diseases by having a high number of individuals in the community being immunized (Christine R Palmer).  However, the theory of herd immunity has its downfalls because for herd immunity to completely be effective, 80 percent of the population needs be immunized. This means that if the number of individuals that are vaccinated drops below 80 percent, there is a high chance of disease spreading and the non-immunized children being left unprotected because he or she is not vaccinated against the disease. Herd immunity is helpful for individuals who medically cannot get vaccinated because of an autoimmune disease or even being allergic to the ingredients inside the vaccine. It is also helpful for pregnant women who cannot get vaccinations during their pregnancy and rely heavily on herd immunity to protect their unborn child. For these individuals, they have no choice but to opt out of vaccination and are relying on others to protect them diseases (Christine R Palmer). The problem with parents relying on herd immunity is, if their community is not getting vaccinated, then the disease will spread. Also, to have herd immunity for measles, 96 to 99 percent the population needs to be immunized and if the percent drops below 96 percent, there is a risk of having an outbreak (Measles Cases and Outbreaks). Not vaccinating children on the basis of herd immunity is putting your child’s health in the hands of others, which can be unreliable. 

One of the biggest reasons for why people are choosing to opt out of vaccination is based on the discredited medical report releases in 1997 by Dr. Andrew Wakefield from England that suggest that the MMR vaccine could increase the chances of being diagnosed with autism in children. The report was proved to be false and since has been discredited but so many people still believe that vaccinations cause autism (Offit). There have been dozens of studies done to discredit Dr. Wakefield, but some individual stills believe that the MMR vaccine causes autism. This still one of the main reasons why parents decide not to vaccinate their children, which is hard to believe considering that it has been disproven. For example, Jenny McCarthy is a celebrity who helps lead a movement for parents that are concerned about the vaccine-autism link. Her son was diagnosed with autism after a series of vaccinations which lead her to believe there was a connection between her son receiving the MMR vaccination and being diagnosed with autism later. Celebrities can play a role on influencing others’ lives and having Jenny McCarthy speak out about anti-vaccine issues could persuade someone to not vaccinate their child if they have not done enough research on the benefit of vaccines (Jenny McCarthy). 

Another reason for the decrease of vaccines deals with a theory by Robert Putnam, which states that American are becoming more distant from one and another which is leading to less social trust. Americans have become solitary since the 1950’s. Putnam’s argument blames the increase of entertainment technologies like TV to Americans becoming more solitary which leads to engaging less with others and causing us to lose trust in each other. Also, people have lost their trust in social institutions like the government, medical professions and the US health care systems for many different reasons. Without trust, then individuals will not think of others which is needed for herd immunity (McCoy). Since Americans have become more isolated from one another, they are less concerned about the community’s health and only concerned about themselves. This belief is concerning because public health is not about the individual but about the bigger picture meaning the community’s health and the nation’s health. 

Individuals who oppose vaccinations are known as anti-vaxxers in the health care world and have different reasons why they have chosen to opt out vaccination for their children. One argument that anti-vaxxers have is that vaccination causes autism, but recently the American Academy of Pediatrics released about 40 different studies showing no link between vaccination and autism. A scientist said, “correlation simply does not imply causation” for explaining autism. Another argument that anti-vaxxers have against vaccination is that it’s no one’s business whether my child gets vaccines, but this argument can easily be shut down. When someone decides not to vaccinate their children, it could endanger the health of other children. This goes along with herd immunity and how choosing to opt out compromises herd immunity which could cause a disease to spread. Anti-vaxxers also argue that vaccines can overload a child’s immune system but this argument can also be disproven. The CDC and most doctors concur that a child’s immune system can support the immune-stimulating antigens that can be found in many of the recommended vaccines for infants. Dr. Laurel Schultz, who is a doctor in San Francisco, just wrote an article explaining that “children are more exposed to more antigens in the environments everyday” then all the antigens found in vaccinations combined during childhood (Howard).  The last argument that anti-vaxxers have is the concept of natural immunity, meaning that, if your body contracts a disease and is able to effectively fight off the disease by its self, then there is no need for vaccinations. This concept can put a child at risk because if the kid is unable to fight off the infection or disease then they could have future complications or even die trying to fight off the infection. By vaccinating children, then the risk of contracting a dangerous infection is cut out, which is why we should highly recommend vaccines (Howard). 

The story of Kristen O’Meara is a real life example of the deadly effects opting out of vaccination can have on children. The mother of three decide to skip vaccination for her first-born child after reading sources that confirmed her belief that vaccination could be linked to autism and even ADHD.  Her decision would have horrible effects on her three children after they contracted Rotavirus but also her and her husband fell ill. Once O’Meara realized that the pain the family endured could be prevented by a vaccine, she become wary about her decision to not vaccinate her children. O’Meara decided to do more research on the benefit of vaccinating and concluded that vaccinating her children was the safest thing to do (News ABC). O’Meara’s stance on anti-vax quickly changed once she realized the risk to her children and also the people around her which is why vaccinating children is so important. 

Not only are vaccinations important for public health but they also save an individual money on health care. The CDC researchers weighed out the benefits of vaccination like the savings on hospitalizations and deaths verse the cost of administration, program cost including the vaccine, and work time lost. The research concluded that for every dollar spent on vaccines then society benefits a total of ten dollars. From 1994 to 2013, CDC researchers established that vaccinations alone saved society a net total of $1.38 trillions and this number was decided by the reducing of health care expenses and the saving from avoiding illnesses. To put this number in perspective based on the United States economy, that is about ten percent of the GDP (Kollipara). In the US because of the current childhood vaccination schedule, each year roughly 42,000 deaths and about 20 million cases of disease are prevented for the children born in that year. This amounts to a net savings of 14 billion dollars in direct cost and about 69 billion overall in societal cost (Measles Outbreak — California). Another example of how vaccinations save money is the creation of the vaccination against the Haemophilus influenza disease with can cause lung infections, meningitis, and even bloodstream infections. The Hib vaccination will help prevent a total of 19,000 cases which turns out to be about 1.8 billion dollars in treatment cost (Naprawa). Vaccination will continue to help save money but only if individuals choose to vaccinate their children and save families from spending money on hospitalizations. Without vaccinations, the United States could be spending billions on diseases that are preventable. 

Anti-vaxxer stances are also causing conflicts in the public-school system, since in some school systems you can opt out for personal or religious beliefs which is considered a nonmedical exemption for immunizations that are required to enroll in school. School systems are being recommended to eliminate nonmedical exemptions when enrolling in school and only accepting medical exemptions related to immunization. Schools rely heavily on the concept of herd immunity to help protect those children whose immune systems are compromised and cannot get vaccinated.  Once again herd immunity plays a role in society but to have reliable herd immunity at least 80 percent of the population need to be vaccinated again the disease. With personal and religious exemptions, schools risk having less than 80 percent of their students being vaccinated and risk a disease spreading in the school which could have devastating effects. Currently some states are pushing for laws that would only accept medical exemptions for a valid reason why the child is not vaccinated when enrolling in school, to protect other children with herd immunity. On the other hand, states who have looser policies on immunization for school can experience greater rates of vaccine-preventable disease and illness outbreak in schools since schools rely on herd immunity (Wyckoff). Schools face the dilemma of trying to do what is best for their student to keep them healthy and safe but also respecting families’ religious beliefs. 

Educating the public about the importance of vaccinations should not only promote getting children vaccinated but sometimes change the minds of anti-vaxxers for the better.  Public service campaigns are one way of educating the public about the importance of getting vaccinated. Examples of public service campaigns are the posters about vaccinations that you see at the doctor’s and health departments, these kinds of campaigns can be somewhat effective to educate the public about vaccination. Yet it’s a step back if individuals do not take the time to stop and read what is on the poster. Also, providing parents with the right resources to educate themselves about vaccination, like the CDC website, pamphlets, and education videos, is important for them to have the right information when deciding the future health of their child. Furthermore, sharing firsthand experience of individuals who were once anti-vaxxer and why they changed their mind to become pro vaccination is important. 

Overall the decrease of vaccination rate has many factors that play into why someone’s decided to not to vaccinate their child. Making vaccination mandatory for individuals has its benefit for society’s health, but also can violate an individual’s right to make decisions about their personal life. To not violate individuals’ rights, the government can encourage and provide creditable research to show the importance of getting vaccinated.  Those in the health care field also have a key role since they are the ones educating the public. Before the child is born doctors need to start educating the parents so they know all the benefits of getting vaccinated. 

To have a healthy society that is protected against infectious diseases that can cause death, vaccination needs to be a key point in protecting us. If there continues to be a decrease in vaccination rate, the United States runs the risk of diseases spreading and causing the country millions if not billions in health care cost. 
