Negatives and Positives of Mandatory Vaccination

Vaccines are a topic that is very trendy and spoken about amongst people all across the globe. The reason being, that it is very contentious with being a historic medical discovery that has incredible benefits, on the controversy it has disadvantages as well, but what are vaccines really?

These are products that protect people against serious and potentially deadly diseases, they are made with ingredients that make them safe and effective to protect people. Vaccines contain a small quantity of the bacteria which prepare the body to fight diseases without exposing it to disease symptoms. In South Africa there are certain vaccines which are mandatory, these include: polio, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTAP), measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), hepatitis b., varicella (chickenpox), rotavirus and typhoid some of the voluntary vaccines include: hepatitis B, influenza type B, inactivated poliovirus. Vaccines are most commonly gives to kids who are in their youth, with developing immunities, in order to protect them from the threatening diseases around them, these vaccines are recommended before your kids start school and in certain countries like US is compulsory.

Vaccines are desired by most people as it stops dangerous or deadly diseases from spreading, has saved thousands of lives, is cost effective - as it is cheaper to prevent a disease than to treat one and protects kids from these diseases World health organization, others however, are against them as they believe that vaccines are a money making scheme, against religious ethics ,cause people to become sick with fatal side effects, prone to injury and vaccine manufacturers cannot be sued for making kids sick and therefore take no responsibility for it. In South Africa, vaccines have become a controversial topic as vaccine hesitancy is increasing. Even though vaccines protect people from getting outbreaking diseases there are many side effects and as a result people find it dangerous, this is where the controversy comes into play. The rise of the anti-vaccine movement has been increasing and vaccine rates have been falling in all parts of the world this including in the UK. Despite diseases being so rife in South Africa, the side effects along with many arguable reasons against vaccinations deter many people, including the older generations who are the most spectacle.

Different vaccines contain different ingredient components. These include aluminium, which is utilised as an adjuvant in vaccines which means that it makes them progressively viable and boosts the immune response. On account of adjuvants, individuals need less portions of vaccines to build their immunity, and that is the reason it is used in vaccines. This is not used in all vaccines such as the live viral vaccines, another important component in vaccines is the Ethyl mercury which is an ingredient in vaccines (influenza vaccines only) which is used as a preservative in order for the vaccine to be prevented from harmful bacterial infections. Pharmaceutical companies add these ingredients to vaccines in order to preserve the vaccine and to build a stronger immune response, however these ingredients are not used in all vaccines.

The most commonly asked question about vaccines are if they are really safe and how effective they are? Of course no vaccine is 100% effective. Depending on different individuals, different people react differently to vaccines, sometimes and not all vaccinated people develop immunity. According to pro vaccine groups, vaccines have been researched and revised by doctors, health professionals and scientists. Serious side effects are very rare and the pain of the vaccine is not remotely as painful as the diseases the vaccines prevent, immunisation protects future generations and if people continue vaccinating now, parents in the future may be able to trust that the diseases of today will no longer be around to harm any future generations. On the other hand anti-vaccine groups believe that there is no certainly in gaining benefits from vaccines, giving a child many vaccinations for different diseases during the same time period will increases the risk of and can overload the immune system, vaccines cause harmful side effects, illnesses, and possibly death as well as possible long-term effects people don't even know about. As you can tell, the debate on both sides of vaccines are very strong. A vaccine that is very controversial is a live vaccine called (mumps measles rubella) MMR vaccine. This is because anti vaccine groups believe that the vaccine causes autism. Dr. Andrew Wakefield, ”The theory presented was that certain children have a genetic predisposition to immune issues,” toxins begin to attack the child's immune system at a young age, thus causing the development of autism. However, despite the research and theories of this, pro-vaccine groups argue against this saying that little is understood about causes of autism. Both genetic and environmental factors play an important role. But, the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence tells us that vaccines like MMR are not the culprit.

As an individual you might wonder why pharmaceutical companies do not need to take responsibility for any damage done by vaccines but do have to take responsibility for drugs for damaging humans? This is because there is a vaccination mandate. The law summarised appears to lead to “the conclusion that a vaccine manufacturer does not need to fear liability from injuries resulting from the administration of the vaccine if the vaccine is correctly manufactured in accordance with regulatory standards and prudent manufacturing practices and the manufacturer has taken reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient of the vaccine will be warned of possible side effects. Merrill's comprehensive survey of the law of liability for all drugs concludes: “If a manufacturer adequately warns physicians [or, in the case of mass-administered vaccines, the recipient] about a drug's foreseeable adverse effects, he will escape liability unless the plaintiff can show that his injury was caused by some impurity or resulted from an unreasonably dangerous design. Although there are no federal laws regarding vaccine administration, each state has laws in place dictating which vaccinations are required for children prior to entering schools. This law indicates that doctors have to take responsibility for drugs damaging humans as doctors are supposed to know their patients allergic circumstances before subscribing any drugs, drugs also cause more serious, permanent consequences.”

Vaccines have wiped out diseases and will continue to do so unless vaccines skepticism rises. Childhood vaccinations are more important than adult vaccines and those who are against vaccines should realise that if your kid is known to be allergic to certain ingredients then not allow for that vaccine, this eliminates the possibility for the vital side effects. Doctors need to speak to their patients and educate the parents about the vaccines in order for them to feel safe and to remove any of the hesitancy that they might have, this in turn will have a major impact and vaccination hesitancy will decrease. Vaccination pro factors outweigh the negative factors and in all should be given to all people specifically children, as it saves more for lives than harms lives.