Early Childhood Vaccines

A vaccine, by definition, “is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular disease” (Sachdev). Simply put, it is a man-made substance that contains a dead pathogen (such as the flu virus, chickenpox, etc.) that, while dead, can stimulate your immune system into a response. Once your immune system acts upon the particular pathogen, the body develops an immunity to the disease that will not be forgotten. In today’s society, all 50 States and the District of Columbia have some sort of legislation that mandates certain vaccines for young children in certain age groups. Some of these vaccines include (but are not limited to)the mumps, measles, rubella, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and varicella. The only
They could be too young, have an underlying condition, or have a poor immune system. Those people should not have to worry about other unvaccinated individuals, who are perfectly capable of being vaccinated, getting them sick with the diseases that are meant to be eradicated. Some may argue that it does not matter if one or two people in a given community are not vaccinated because they develop a “herd immunity”. This is when they have an immunity to the virus because the people around them are vaccinated against it and thus cannot spread it to them or anyone else (Healy). This situation would never work for long. Those who are not vaccinated will soon number more and more in a given community and once they number a certain amount, the unvaccinated are likely to get sick and spread the pathogens around. Matt Welch makes a great analogy on the subject of herd immunity: “Vaccines are like fences. Fences keep your neighbor's livestock out of your pastures and yours out of his. Similarly, vaccines separate people's microbes. Anti-vaccination folks are taking advantage of the fact that most people around them have chosen differently, thus acting as a firewall protecting them from disease. But if enough people refuse, that firewall comes down, and innocent people get hurt.” A person can not “piggyback” off of those that are vaccinated, hoping that they will never get sick. It is irresponsible for
This reinforces the notion that children should be vaccinated, the earlier the better. If nothing has shown up in over a decade’s worth of studies and data, then nothing will show up in the future. Vaccines do nothing but prevent disease and protect your family. Just because of one deluded researcher claimed that vaccines cause autism does not mean that people should ignore all of the fresh new data being put forth by legitimate and respected researchers and