Lyla Almonina

English
Vaccinations Argumentative Essay

In the United States, vaccinations have become a controverted topic concerning children’s
health, causing arguments whether children should or shouldn’t be vaccinated. Vaccinations and
immunization shots must be vitally used with children; for the reason that serious diseases still exist,
can mean fewer missed school and work days, and is extremely effective. Vaccinations can mean
the difference between life and death. However, parents argue that vaccines cause their child to
become ill, from various side effects. Guardians become extremely hesitant, and some refuse to have
their child vaccinated. If it were dangerous to have children vaccinated, it wouldn’t be allowed for
immunization and health in the United States.
At present, serious diseases exist and escalate through the environment. Ncbi.gov points
out: “Infectious diseases are spreading around the world faster than ever, says the World Health
Organization, and new diseases are emerging at the unprecedented rate of one a year.” Illnesses
such as Diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae, and Influenza are generated by bacteria. Clarified from
ivaccinate.org, “They spread from person to person through the air by just breathing, sneezing, or
coughing. If these diseases aren’t properly treated, it can create other complications to the body such
as heart failure, paralysis, pneumonia, and arthritis.” Illnesses can be spread by harmful bacteria and
create heavy complications through social and physical contact with others infected with the
disease, and catches on to other people who aren’t vaccinated.
Subsequently, vaccinated people and children miss fewer school and work days. Parents
with children diagnosed with illnesses normally take off days from their work or vacation time, to
care for their child. Caring for a sick child results in high medical bills; including the purchasing of
medicine, clothes, and foods. Cdc.gov emphasizes, “Parents had medical expenses ranging from
under $300 to about $4,000 and missed between 11 and 73 hours of work.” On top of that, children
miss many school days due to sickness. According to a study by kut.org, “Last year, 300,000 Central
Texas students missed 2.4 million school days. The study reported a variety of illnesses such as
asthma or diabetes made up 48 percent of reasons for absence.” Kids become frequently absent in
school; and half of the reasons for being absent is due to illness. Missing school, and work can create
larger problems atop of being sick.
Nevertheless, vaccinations are very effective and beneficial. They’ve saved millions of lives,
and contributed to the halt of diseases spreading. According to ncbi.gov, “Vaccinations have
reduced disease, disability, and death from a variety of infectious diseases.” Vaccines have created a
positive impact on the environment. As reported by ivaccinate.org, “Scientists have considered
immunization as the greatest public health achievement. Vaccines have reduced and eliminated
many diseases that killed or severely disabled people; the disease of measles (99.9% decrease),
diphtheria, (100% decrease) smallpox (100%). The drops in disease rates are primarily the result of
people getting vaccinated.” These results have a positive contribution to the spread of disease,
makes the world a safer place, and have helped rescue the lives of children and adults.
On the other hand, a sufficient number of guardians believe that vaccinations and
immunization shots should not be vitally used with children. They assume that the immunization
shots will overwhelm their child’s immune system, and cause varieties of side-effects. As expressed
by cdc.gov, “Common side effects of any vaccine can include: injection reactions (pain, swelling and
redness), a high temperature, shivering, extreme tiredness.” Vaccinations do have side effects that
may make children ill, and persuade parents to not have their child gain immunization shots. On
the contrary, vaccines have been examined by medical doctors and scientists. They’ve been tried and
experimented for over centuries. Vaccines wouldn’t be safe in use, if it were to cause other issues
within the child’s immune system. Therefore, the purpose of vaccines are to protect children from
disease- not to cause a disease to arise.
Finally, in conclusion, vaccines and immunization shots should be given to children.
Vaccines have decreased rates of infectious diseases, saved millions of lives, and changed the way
people live. Although some regard vaccines as hazardous, vaccinations are no harm at all.
Immunization injections do have following symptoms, however, only cause mere side effects that
last up to a few days, and chances of developing a disease from vaccines are extremely low.
Conversely, the purpose of vaccinations are to protect people’s immune system; especially for young
kids that are unvaccinated. Before vaccines, many children died from diseases that vaccines now
prevent; however today, vaccines have benefited humanity greatly supporting the human
population to grow, and our ultimate goal is to spread awareness on how important it is to make
sure children receive their vaccinations.