Immunizations
 

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 2 (August 2009).


We’ve all heard of immunizations, vaccinations, or just plain old “shots” from the doctor. It’s almost every kid’s worst nightmare—going to the doctor to get a needle poked into your arm. That doesn’t sound all that fun, even for adults. However, vaccines are seen as the one of the most successful medical advancements in history. Why is this, and how do they work? Furthermore, should you have a choice in whether to be vaccinated or not?

In 1796, a physician named Edward Jenner decided to prove a theory he'd been hearing about for quite a while.

Smallpox, at this point, had killed many people worldwide. Cowpox, which is less serious than smallpox, is a disease comparable to smallpox. Jenner noticed that once a cow recovered from cowpox it became immune to the disease, meaning even when exposed it would not catch the disease again. He tested this theory on a boy by exposing him to cowpox and, after he recovered, to smallpox through injection. It worked!

There are four basic steps to how the vaccination works. First, and most obviously, you administer the vaccination through an injection. Next, your body realizes that the injection contains foreign substances or antigens. Your body then proceeds to create antibodies to fight off the foreign substance or disease you were “infected” with when you received the injection. Finally, your body saves these antibodies, in case it needs to fight off the same substance again.

There is a downside. Antibodies for one disease, like chicken pox, can only fight of that one disease. Having antibodies for chicken pox does not mean you’re immune from smallpox, and this means that for every disease a person wants to be immunized to they must get a new vaccination.

It is important to remember that doctors don’t fully infect you with a disease when giving you an immunization. You will only be injected with enough of the disease for your body to create the necessary antibodies, without actually catching the disease.


There are many arguments for and against vaccinations, particularly on the subject of forcing parents to vaccinate their children. There are people who don’t want their children vaccinated but may be putting their children at risk. Should they still have this choice? There are two sides to the argument.

You will run across many people who believe parents should be forced to vaccinate their children. In failing to get a child vaccinated, a parent is putting them at risk for multiple diseases. And they are not only affecting one person's health in choosing not to have his or her child vaccinated. Should their child fall ill and carry the disease to school, the store, or the playground, there is a chance that more children will catch the disease.

Many people argue that by failing to have your child vaccinated you are simply asking for them to get various illnesses. Why not prevent something that is so easily preventable?

Some parents believe that their child may get autism or other life-changing disorders from immunizations. There is, however, no proven link between the two, and these cases are extremely rare.

Some will say the risk of vaccinations is too great to leave this choice up to the government. These people believe that parents should not be forced to vaccinate their children. They support their arguments using cases where autism may be related to a cocktail of injections, however it remains that there is currently no proven connection. To some people, however, the risk is not worth the potential negative effects.

Many people also take religious beliefs into account and say that you should not interfere with the course of God or another higher power. These people argue that parent's should have the right to chose to vaccinate their children.

Opinions from the Author: Personally, I believe it should be a choice. As someone afraid of needles myself, there have been times where I’ve researched a vaccination to decide if it was in my, and everyone around me, best interest to go through the emotional stress of getting a vaccination. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t. However, my parents and I should have the right to make that choice. I believe people who say they won’t get their children vaccinated because of fear of autism or another incurable disability should research the vaccine, and then look at options to lessen that chance. For example, getting only one immunization at a time is said to lower the risk of adverse affects. In my opinion, decisions are good, as long as they're made with educational backing.

Fun Fact: “Vacca” is the latin term for cow, so the term "vaccination" is actually named after cowpox.

Sources:
http://health.howstuffworks.com/vaccine.htm