The Vaccination Debate Reading Answers

The Vaccination Debate

Disputes over vaccination have taken place for almost eighty years, since vaccinations were introduced. Despite scientific consensus that recommended vaccines are safe and effective, scares regarding their safety still occur today, resulting in regular disease outbreaks and deaths from vaccine preventable diseases.

Parental refusal of vaccines, or 'vaccine hesitancy' as it is sometimes called, is therefore a growing concern for the increased occurrence of vaccine preventable diseases in children and the reasons for this vary widely. Parental concerns about vaccines in each category lead to a wide spectrum of decisions varying from parents completely refusing all vaccinations to only delay vaccinations, so that they are more spread out.

A large subset of parents who allow their children to be vaccinated, have also admitted to being worried and having questions about the vaccinations. For this reason, it can be helpful for pharmacists and other healthcare providers to understand the cited reasons for hesitancy, so they are better prepared to educate their patients' families. Education is a key element in equipping parents with the necessary information, so that they can make responsible immunization decisions for their children.

In the United States, all fifty states require that children be vaccinated in order to go to public school. There are some variations in which immunisations are required and when, but throughout the U.S. there is an expectation that going to school means getting shots. However, in all fifty states, there are ways to get out of being vaccinated, usually by saying that vaccination goes against people's individual convictions. However, a significant underlying reason why parents are refusing is that they just don't think vaccines are necessary. In essence, we are victims of our own success. Vaccines have done such a good job that many people no longer remember the horrific range of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Another problem is that people who choose not to vaccinate often live in the same communities. This isn't surprising, given that people's social networks influence their choices. However, when groups of unimmunised people live together, it completely disrupts the whole concept of herd immunity. Vaccine-preventable diseases can easily take root and spread.

While it's important that parents in general have the right to choose whether or not their child gets a medical treatment - and vaccines are a medical treatment - the vaccination choice is fundamentally different in that it affects not just the child, but also the entire community. Choosing not to vaccinate is dangerous for the child and it's dangerous for everyone around that child. Individual beliefs should not give anyone the right to put the health of others at risk.

Some parents believe that vaccines can cause the diseases that they are meant to prevent. Properly formulated vaccines cannot do this, however, as they either use weakened or inactive viruses. These types of vaccine help people develop immunity by imitating an infection. The type of infection a vaccine causes, however, does not cause illness, but it does cause the immune system to produce antibodies.

Sometimes, after getting a vaccine, the imitation infection can cause minor symptoms, such as fever, but such minor symptoms are normal and should be expected as the body builds immunity. Once the imitation infection goes away, the body is left with a supply of 'memory' cells that will remember how to fight that disease in the future.

However, as it typically takes a few weeks for the body to produce antibodies, it is possible that a person who was infected with a disease just before or just after vaccination could develop symptoms and get the disease, because the vaccine had not had enough time to provide protection.

The informative interaction between health providers and doubtful parents is vital for ensuring the protection of children through vaccination, but these interactions can sometimes be difficult for the health providers. Research has shown that most GP's and immunizing nurses found discussions with parents who decline to vaccinate their children to be challenging and that they felt that these parents cast doubt on their integrity.

These encounters also stimulated strong internal conflict; many providers felt their professional obligations to the child and the community conflicted with the primarily bureaucratic function of exempting parents from complying with the recommended immunization schedule. A number of professionals also can begrudge being called upon to sign exemption forms at all.

If pharmacists and other health care providers are able to understand the main concerns parents have about vaccinating their children, they can be better prepared to have informative conversations about immunisations and they will also be able to provide the information parents need to make the best informed decisions for their children.

Parents who are hesitant to vaccinate or who refuse vaccines care about their children and want to do what they can to protect them, just like any other parent. It is important for practitioners to have open and frank conversations with their patients and their families so that the families will understand the benefits of vaccination without undergoing judgment for having questions about their child's healthcare.

The education patients have been exposed to has resulted in modest improvement in terms of affecting parents' attitudes about immunization, but the tools healthcare providers should use for this have not been fully discovered. Understanding the source of parents' questions can equip pharmacists, physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers to speak with patients on a more relatable level and to speak in ways that parents value the most.

All healthcare workers should make an effort to know about the recommended vaccines and to understand why those immunisations are recommended. This information will allow families to have face-to-face access to reliable information that can help them to make the best decisions for the society they live in.