1

Jesse

Ms.Emma and Ms.Liz

Science 8B

3 May 2019 Vaccination: Why is it important

Vaccines are one of the main reasons that many extremely deadly diseases have

been for the most part eradicated from the population. They have been around for

hundreds of years, and save between 2-3 million

lives each year. According to vaccine basics,

“Parents want to do everything possible to make

sure their children are healthy and protected

from preventable diseases. Vaccination is the

best way to do that” (Vaccine).

Source of image: ​https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324619.php​ ​ The majority of​ p

​ arents in the United States

are able to gain access to these life saving vaccinations, in other parts of the world it is

much harder to gain access to these same necessary vaccines. Vaccination has

changed the way we fight disease and it has played a vital role in decreasing the

number of outbreaks of these life threatening diseases. It is important for everyone to

have access to these vaccines in order to continue to decrease the number of deadly

disease cases globally and locally.

Over the past hundreds of

years scientist have been

developing new vaccines and the

 2

science behind them are interesting yet simple. Vaccines all have the same basic

properties. A dead antigen (a part of a bacteria or virus) that is injected is used to create

a immune response in your body to protect itself against future real disease exposure.

Vaccines take many years to finalize and get into the public, “10 to 15 years of

research, development and testing before being approved by the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration (FDA).” (The Science Behind Vaccine Research and Testing) Other

vaccines are created annually such as the flu vaccine, the flu strains change yearly

which creates the need for new vaccines in order to create an effective vaccine. It is

important to have high rates of vaccination in the population because when there is a

high percentage of people vaccinated you can reach “herd immunity” which is a concept

which basically means if enough of the population is vaccinated against a certain virus

or diseases that the rates of infection will be extremely low. Also if herd immunity is

reached in not only protects the people that are vaccinated it also protects people that

are unable or unwilling to can vaccinated. Vaccination is a rather simple solution to a

massive problem.

Vaccination has had a very positive impact on society, helping to save millions of

lives each year. When a higher percent of the population is vaccinated it decreases the

chance of a outbreak emencily. Many states around the United States have access to

vaccination but the vaccination rates are lower than they should be.

“​Other states, such as Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Arizona, and Washington,

have also experienced significant decreases in their vaccination rates that put them well

below “herd immunity”, the threshold where enough people are immune to a disease
 3

that transmission chains are broken.”(Mccoy). This is a surprising statistic because in

the United States there is a lot easier access

to vaccination than in other more remote

parts of the world.In order to effectively

prevent disease outbreaks it is necessary to

give vaccination to a large percentage of the

population, but how do we do that?

Currently there are a multiple different

organizations trying to help raise those

vaccination rates.

source of image: ​https://www.immunizeusa.org/blog/2015/february/19/4-striking-statistics-about-vaccination/​ ​ “The Global Vaccine Action Plan

(GVAP) is a roadmap to prevent millions of deaths through more equitable access to

vaccines by 2020.” (Immunization coverage). It is essential for everyone to have access

to vaccination in order to lower infection rates.

Giving access to vaccination to everyone globally is a problem that does have

some solutions. Currently ​as seen in this infographic there is still a massive number of

children not receiving vital vaccination. There are many possible ways to help solve this

problem. There are vaccination organizations that for many people around the world are

the only way to get the necessary vaccines but even those organizations can struggle to

keep up with

millions of people that need these life saving vaccines. According to the CDC,
​

“​Immunization programs in resource-poor countries are faced with many barriers to

 4

success, including: shortages of trained staff and supervisors, vaccines, and reliable

power supply. The result? Each year about 21.8

million children miss necessary vaccines”

(​Strengthening Immunization Systems​) It is extremely

important for these organizations to have proper

funding and supply so that they can continue to

administer vital vaccinations to people even in

the most remote places. In order to ensure high

levels of immunization globally countries have to

Source of image: ​https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/immunization/sis/default.htm​ ​ work together on strategies about how to deliver

and produce vaccines.

Vaccination is one of the most important advances that modern day medicine

has seen. They have helped to eradicate many deadly diseases and save millions of

lives each year. Vaccines are the

most effective way to prevent

infection from diseases. In the

United States there is much higher

rates of vaccination than in other

parts of the world because of the

fact that people have much easier

access to necessary vaccinations, however globally many people still lack access to

many life saving vaccines. Vaccination plays a necessary role in eliminating infection of
 5

life threatening diseases, it is very important to give everyone the opportunity to get

vaccinated, because by being vaccinated your not only helping yourself but everyone

around you.
 6

Works Cited

Sun, Lena. “​Percentage of young U.S. children who don’t receive any vaccines has quadrupled

​ ctober 11, 2018,

since 2001” ​The Washington Post. O

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/percentage-of-young-us-childre

n-who-

dont-receive-any-vaccines-has-quadrupled-since-2001/2018/10/11/4a9cca98-cd0d-11e8

-920f-d d52e1ae4570_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ff69e173bee1

“Benefits and risk of vaccination” ​NHS. J​ anuary 3, 2019.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/benefits-and-risks/

​ arch 2018.
“10 facts on immunization” ​World Health Organization. M

https://www.who.int/features/factfiles/immunization/en/

Feemster, Kristen.​ ​Vaccines: What Everyone Needs to Know. ​Oxford University Press. 2018

Mccoy, Charles. “Why are Vaccination Rates Dropping in America?” ​The New Republic. J​ uly

24, 2015.

https://newrepublic.com/article/122367/why-are-vaccination-rates-dropping-america

“Importance of Vaccines” ​Immunization Action Coalition. ​May 8 2018.

http://www.vaccineinformation.org/vaccines-save-lives/

“Six common misconceptions about immunization” ​World Health Organization.

https://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/initiative/detection/immunization_misconceptions/en/

“The Science Behind Vaccine Research and testing” ​New York State. J​ uly 2014.

https://www.health.ny.gov/prevention/immunization/vaccine_safety/science.htm

“Immunization coverage” ​World Health Organization. J​ uly 16, 2018.

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/immunization-coverage
 7

“Strengthening Immunization Systems” ​Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/immunization/sis/default.htm

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324619.php

https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/immunization/sis/default.htm

https://www.immunizeusa.org/blog/2015/february/19/4-striking-statistics-about-vaccinati

n/
8