Should You Get Vaccinated?

Keion Smiley

Throughout history, many diseases have surfaced and made their dents in the population 

of humanity as well as left permanent damage for some. According to the CDC, Vaccines contain the same germs that cause the disease. The germs have either been killed or weakened so that they cannot make you sick or worse and some vaccines only have a part of the diseased germ.

A vaccine stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies, as if the disease was exposed to the body. After getting vaccinated, the body develops immunity to that disease without having to get the disease. The first successful vaccine to be developed was the Smallpox vaccine. It was developed by Edward Jenner in 1796. He did so by following an observation on milkmaids who had caught cowpox and did not catch smallpox by showing inoculated cowpox protected against inoculated smallpox. 

I agree with the decision to get vaccinated. It makes sense to take the best precautions when it comes to diseases and safety when some of these diseases don’t have cures or treatments for them. Japan had a successful pertussis vaccination program in 1974 and nearly 80% of Japanese children were vaccinated. There were no deaths and only 393 cases had been reported in the entire country that year. Then rumors began to spread that the vaccine was not needed and that it was not safe.

By 1976, only 10% of infants were getting vaccinated and in 1979, Japan suffered a major pertussis epidemic with more than 13,000 cases of whooping cough and 41 deaths. I believe that they work and as this record shows, starting false rumors and neglecting to get vaccinated will result in negative results.

Vaccine hesitancy or refusing to vaccinate was identified by The World Health Organization it as one of the top ten threats to global health in 2019. Anti-Vaxxers bring forward many arguments to justify their beliefs. Parents do not feel people should be able to tell them what to do with their own children, but other experts argue that it ignores community responsibility and other existing laws surrounding child safety, including car seats and bike helmet laws. Many Anti Vaxxers would argue that they want to protect their child from any and all harm. Vaxxers believe that few harms are as scary as the disability from polio, the scarring from polio, the scarring from chicken pox, or the brain injury from measles.

Vaccines protect us from diseases such as Chickenpox, Diphtheria, the Flu, Hepatitis A & B, Hib, HPV, Measles, Meningococcal, Mumps, Polio, Pneumococcal, Rotavirus, Rubella, Tetanus, and Whooping Cough. There are so many people and places a child can be exposed to these diseases such as parents, brothers or sisters, visitors to their home, people returning home after traveling abroad, at playgrounds, at the grocery store, and even in school. Many of these people and places are visited almost everyday which makes the risk of not being vaccinated much greater.

Before a vaccine is distributed to the public, the FDA oversees the lab testing of the vaccine that may even take several years to make sure it is safe and effective for us. When a vaccine is licensed, the FDA, CDC, National Institutes of Health, and many other federal agencies routinely monitor the use and investigate any potential safety problems. 

The Church believes that there are a number of vaccines that are made in descendant cells of aborted fetuses. Abortion is considered a grave crime against human life. In the case Check v. The New York City Department of Education, three parents claimed their religious freedom was violated by the state’s vaccine policy. The New York Times states that two families sues to overturn the policy and the third sued over the city’s refusal to grant her the religious exemption she sought.

Nicole Phillips is a mother of two unvaccinated children and claims that they don’t want anything being put into their bodies at all and that they would rather rely on their natural immune system and their faith in God. The lead plaintiff Dina Check told The Times that pestilence is from the devil, the devil is germs and disease, which is a cancer, but if you trust in the Lord, these things cannot come near you.

The court ended up rejecting those arguments and citing a 110-year-old U.S. Supreme Court decision in a case that upheld a $5 fine for a Massachusetts man who refused a smallpox vaccine during an epidemic. And so, the government should not play God and try to force life changing initiatives on the lives of people that do not want them, but people should want to get vaccinated in order to protect themselves and their loved ones. 

Therefore, I do believe is it the government’s job to protect society and in doing so the people should want to protect each other too. Getting vaccinated is the first step to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.