English Unit 2

Research Project: Research Paper

Second Draft

Name: Ong Aun Jie

Student ID: 16022592
Research Topic: Vaccination on babies
English group: 2-24
Lecturer: Ms Karen
Date of submission: 26/8/16
1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background of the Issue

In this written report, research on the internet has been done to study the outcome of vaccination on
babies. As it appears there are two groups of people that have a different perspective on vaccination
on babies. One of the groups claimed that vaccination on babies increases the chances of a child
developing autism. The other group which strongly disagree with how vaccination lead to autism as
there are not enough research evidence to prove vaccination causes autism. In the same time, the
group of people who are pro-vaccine urge that all parents should have their children vaccinated as it is
important to help their children prevent fatal diseases. Hence, it is clear that vaccination is a
controversial topic.

Ever since vaccine has been discovered, it has saved millions of lives across the world. Vaccination is
the injection of weaken pathogen which are linked to the diseases. The weakened pathogen helps
stimulate the immune system of the body without harming it as the pathogens are not strong enough
to be threatening. Other than that, vaccination has eradicated a dangerous diseases called smallpox in
1980 (World Health Organization n.d.). Back in the day when vaccination hasnt been discovered yet,
smallpox has caused a significant number of death toll. At the same time, the invention of vaccination
has greatly reduced the number of deaths caused by infectious diseases.

On the other hand, controversies arise as large amount of people around the world believed that
vaccine brings harm to their child. Therefore, a group called the anti-vaccine movement was formed.
This group revolves around an idea which they think vaccination causes damage to their childrens
brain which lead to autism in later stage. Also, many people are sceptical about injecting weakened
bacteria into a childs body. They fear that the weakened bacteria might cause more harm than good to
their child. Other than that, many of the anti-vaccine movement members also believed that
vaccination has adverse effects towards their children. According to vaccine choice Canada 2012,
there has been a study conducted on long term health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated
children. The results show that vaccinated children has more negative effect on them compared to the
unvaccinated ones.

Based on the background of the issues, there are two different groups of people with 2 different point
of view on vaccination. Therefore, further investigation is needed to conclude whether vaccination on
babies is beneficial or harmful.

1.2 Objectives of the Research

There are a total of three objectives in this report with the first being to explore the positive impact of
vaccination on babies. The second objective of this report is to investigate the negative impact of
vaccination on babies and the third objective is to evaluate the information gathered and hope to prove
that vaccination doesnt cause the development of autism in infants.

1.3 Scope of Research

The topic of vaccination is a controversial topic and based off of history, vaccination has saved
millions of lives ever since it was discovered. On the flipside, there is a group of people who doubt
the effectiveness of vaccine. This report will focus on the impact of vaccination on babies. It must be
said that babies were chosen to be studied because babies are the ones who are most commonly
vaccinated compared to adults. The main focus of this report is to study the positive impact of
vaccination of babies as well as the negative impact of vaccination on babies.

3.0 Analysis of Findings

3.1 The positive impact of vaccination on babies

The existence of vaccination has shown us a significant amount of positive impact on vaccination of
babies all around the world. The positive impacts such as vaccination on babies has saved millions of
lives and vaccination plays an important role in protecting the future generation. Hence, vaccination is
widely used all around the world.

The immunization for babies is really important as it helps prevent fatal disease such as smallpox,
measles and etc. The vaccination of babies can greatly reduce the risk of the baby dying and save
millions of lives every day. It is important for babies to get vaccinated as human combat diseases
using our bodys immunity. Infants taking shots of vaccine can help stimulate early immune system to
boost immunity to diseases. Hence, the chances of the infant being infected by deadly diseases are
minimized. There are many people who claim that childhood vaccines are very important. Centres for
Disease Control (n.d) stated that unvaccinated childrens immunity cannot work fast enough to
prevent the antigen from causing diseases. Hence, the use of vaccine stimulates infants immunity at
an earlier stage to produce more antibodies to combat deadly diseases. Other than that, vaccine can
put parents heart at rest as it proves to be effective and efficient in preventing diseases. Therefore,
Parents should no longer fear their children being exposed to fatal diseases. According to Kauffman
2012, she said that vaccine is really important as vaccine-preventable childhood illness is dangerous
and the discovery of vaccine has really aid in saving infants live. Hence, the vaccination of babies has
a positive outcome as it helps saves lives by preventing diseases.

Vaccination of babies plays an important role in protecting the future generations. This is because
back when vaccine wasnt discovered, contagious diseases can be spread around the world in a short
amount of time. Hence, deaths toll of children dying to these diseases increases exponentially. Vaccine
can be used to completely wipe out a disease, making them extinct. One of the example is smallpox.
Smallpox has been completely wipe out as a disease, making them extinct (Williams ,2014). At the
same time, children of the future generation can rest easy as they dont have to worry about smallpox
anymore as it has been wiped out. The continuation of vaccination on babies will eventually eliminate
all others deadly childhood diseases completely (Vaccines.gov n.d). Also, vaccine has been made for
most of the serious diseases out there. Therefore, vaccine not only help protect the current generation
of children but also the future generation but eradicating disease from the face of the earth.
In conclusion, it can be said that vaccination of babies does have a positive impact. Vaccination of
babies has saved millions of lives as it helps prevent diseases and cease the spread of contagious
diseases around the world.
3.2 The negative impact of vaccination on babies
Although it seems to be that vaccination only brings benefits to human by ceasing the spread of
deadly diseases across the world. There are also arguments which contradicts the beneficial effects of
vaccination on babies. The opposing side claim that vaccination on babies develop negative effects
such adverse side effects towards babies which might be life threatening and vaccination claimed to
be the origin of autism by a group of people such as the anti-vaccination movement group.

There are reports stating that vaccination causes adverse side effects to babies. Adverse effects such as
pain and swelling at injection sites, fever, headache, mild rash and etc. These effects can be life
threatening for babies as their immune system is still vulnerable. Hence, many parents whom
discovered reports of these side effects, they started worrying and doubt the effectiveness of
vaccination and started questioning doctors. According the National Vaccine Information Centre (n.d),
everyone infants react differently towards vaccine. Some may react positively, where some react
negatively which causes a lot of complication. The reason behind why every infant react differently is
because each individual has different levels of immunity. Other than that, some individual may be
allergic towards certain vaccine. The allergic reaction can easily become the cause of death in babies
as their body are still vulnerable and couldnt cope with the intense allergic reaction. In the same time,
immunization on babies could stimulate a seizure. This can be worrying as the seizure can happen
instantly after the injection of vaccine. Even more, Vaccine could also cause an allergic reaction called
anaphylactic reaction (NHS n.d). This allergic reaction is extremely rare but it is possible to have it
diagnosed on babies. Many babies diagnosed with anaphylactic reaction often dies from it and it is
highly unlikely for a baby to survive. Surprisingly, there are also cases where doctors believed that
vaccination is linked to sudden infant death syndromes (SIDS). Knowing that there are cases where
babies dies unknowingly can cause a fright in new parents which change their perspective on
vaccination. Therefore, reports of these incident can be sufficient enough to make parents question
whether to vaccine their child or not.

Apart from that, there are also people who believed that vaccination on babies lead to autism in a
child. Autism is the most diagnosed health condition among children compared to other diseases such
as childhood cancer, diabetes and aids combined. There is one famous vaccine called Measles Mumps
Rubella (MMR) which is famously blamed for causing autism in toddlers. According to Sarich 2013,
a court admitted that vaccination of MMR is linked to causing autism in toddlers. This is due to the
sufficient amount scientific evidence and also cases where autism develop shortly after the
vaccination. Also, autism can be either mild or extreme. Toddlers diagnosed with autism usually have
problems communicating, forming relationships and etc. Ever since the news of vaccination may be
linked to autism surfaced. Parents are taking extra precaution to make sure that they prevent their
children from developing autism. Hence, many parents join groups such as the Anti-vaccine
movement group. Therefore, there is a chance of autism developing in toddlers from vaccination.

In conclusion, it is apparent that vaccination on babies does have a negative aspect which threaten the
life of babies. At this time, more studies and research needed to be done to fully unfold the mystery of
vaccination and shed light on the problem vaccination faced.
 References

BBC News 2016, Uganda to jail parents over missed vaccinations viewed on 27/7/16,
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35898715

Centres for Disease Control and Prevention 2016, Why are childhood vaccines so Important?
viewed on 27/7/16, http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/howvpd.htm

Kauffman, J 2016, A vaccine made my baby stop breathing. But I still believe in
vaccination viewed on 26/7/16,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/08/09/a-vaccine-
made-my-baby-stop-breathing-but-i-still-believe-in-vaccination/
Kluger, J 2015 Why Science is winning the Vaccine wars viewed on 27/7/16,
http://time.com/3947855/vaccine-poll-antivaxxers/

Kresse, N 2014, Vaccinations protect current and future generations viewed on 26/7/16,
http://www.orleanshub.com/news2014/Vaccinations-protect-current-and-future-generations.htm

Levine, O 2016, Four immunization innovations that are saving childrens lives viewed on 26/7/16,
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/29/health/levine-world-immunization-week-innovations/

NHS.uk 2016, 5-in-1 vaccine: side effects viewed on 20/8/16,

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/pages/5-in-1-vaccine-side-effects.aspx

National vaccine Information Centre 2016, Vaccinations: know the risks, viewed on 21/8/16,
http://www.nvic.org/vaccines-and-diseases/Vaccinations--Know-the-risks-and-failures-.aspx

Sarich, C 2013, Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine Finally linked to Autism in Multiple Court Cases
viewed on 20/8/16, http://naturalsociety.com/measles-mumps-rubella-vaccine-cause-autism/

Schultz, L (n.d), How can I tell if my child is having a bad reaction to a vaccine, viewed on 21/8/16,
http://www.babycenter.com/404_how-can-i-tell-if-my-child-is-having-a-bad-reaction-to-a-
vac_11477.bc

Vaccines.gov n.d, Five Important Reasons to Vaccinate Your Child viewed on

26/7/16, https://www.vaccines.gov/more_info/features/five-important-reasons-to-
vaccinate-your-child.html

Vaccine choice Canada 2012, Science supporting vaccine Risk viewed on 26/7/16,
http://vaccinechoicecanada.com/science-supporting -vaccine-risk/

Williams, G 2014, Lets finally condemn the smallpox virus to extinction viewed
on 26/7/16, https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22229694-800-lets-finally-
condemn-the-smallpox-virus-to-extinction/