Your paper must be 5 pages in length and reference 4-6 scholarly, peer-reviewed resources. Be sure to follow APA formatting standards (spacing, font, headers, titles, abstracts, page numbering, etc.) as you demonstrate informative, explanatory, descriptive writing.
Address your general topic by forming and answering two levels of research questions, developed to provide specific and detailed inquiry, discovery and understanding:
Choose a “Level 1 Research Question/ Writing Prompt” from either or both of the lists below to answer in the paper.
Compose a “Level 2 Research Question/ Writing Prompt” that provides detail, specificity, and focus to your inquiry, research and writing**.
State your research questions in the introduction of your paper.
Form the body of your paper by answering each research question, using references to the resources found in your research.
Review the process and the resulting understandings in the conclusion of the paper (briefly review the issues, research questions, answers, and insights.)
Level 1 Research Questions/Writing Prompts
SCIENTIFIC Perspective of Inquiry
What are the anatomical, physiological, pathological, or epidemiological issues?
Which body systems are affected?
What happens at the cellular or genetic level?
Which chemical or biological issues are most important?
Level 1 Research Questions/Writing Prompts
MATHEMATICAL/ANALYTICAL Perspective of Inquiry
What are the economical issues involved?
Which economic theories or approaches best explain the issue?
What are the statistical facts related to the issue?
Which statistical processes used to study the issue provide for the best explanation or understanding of the issue?
Vaccination: Myths and Truths
Introduction
Vaccines are effective ways of preventing life-threatening health conditions through improving the natural immune responses to illnesses caused by bacteria and viruses. Vaccine initiatives across the world have sought to improve overall health of the entire population through reducing the transmission of diseases, disability, and potential infant mortality. Even though vaccines are considered to be safe and effective, there are some myths about the vaccines. The research questions to be addressed is on nature of anatomical, physiological, pathological or epidemiological issues, the body systems affected, occurrences at the cellular or genetic level after vaccination and the significance of chemical and biological issues (Mitra, Counts & Pennebaker, 2016). It will also address the economic theories and issues associated with the vaccination programs. Therefore, the assessment of the myths and truths of vaccination programs is critical to assess its efficiency and significance in the society.
From a scientific perspective, one of the key myths of vaccines is that a child can contract a disease from a vaccine. The truth of the myth is that it is difficult for vaccine to cause disease to children. Most vaccines are usually inactivated making it difficult for them to cause disease to the children vaccinated. Only few vaccines contain living organisms and after vaccination, they have been proven to cause mild diseases. For instance, chickenpox vaccines can cause rashes, but only small spots. However, Pluviano, Watt and Della Sala (2017) indicated the vaccines are not harmful and could show the vaccine is functioning well. An exception was oral polio vaccine that had the capacity to mutate and lead to polio.
In addition, common myths are that vaccines are not well tested for safety. The real facts differ with the common myth. Vaccines are usually considered to be very safe and effective. Just like all medical drugs, vaccines undergo various steps before they are approved. Before approval, the vaccines are expected to prove that they are safe and effective in the preventing of the targeted diseases. Even after approval, vaccines are monitored for any potential side effects. Serious side effects from the use of the vaccines are rare (Jacob, et al., 2016). The vaccines do not affect the genetic makeup of a person. The vaccines operate as medicines targeted at addressing specific medical illnesses.
Some of the biological concerns and myths about vaccines is that vaccines could lead to autism and the potential death of infants. Research studies by Mitra et al. (2016) discovered that vaccines are usually safe. Most of the body reactions towards vaccines are usually minor such as fever. Only on few incidences a serious health concern has been recorded after a vaccination. However, these situations are usually monitored and investigated effectively. Pluviano et al (2017) explained that it is highly likely to be seriously hurt by preventable diseases rather than vaccines. For instance, polio could cause paralysis and measles leads to inflammation of human brain, and other preventable diseases could lead to eventual death. The advantages of vaccination outweigh the entire risks of vaccines. Without proper vaccines, there are would be increased cases of injuries and deaths. The medical diagnoses are conducted for children with same age to conduct routine immunizations. However, there is no any evidence to connect the vaccines as the main causes of autism.
Statically, there is a common myth that there is no need to vaccinate a child if other children in the community are immune. The fact is that herd immunity emerges when a huge population of a community is fully immunized against a contagious disease, lowering the possibility of a disease outbreak (Jacob, et al., 2016). Young infants and pregnant women who might get immunized depends on the various forms of protection. However, when many people rely on herd immunity as a way of preventing potential health infection from preventable diseases, the immunity will later disappear. Economically, the social optimality economic model is a critical economic theory that explains the significance of decentralized decision-making as part of reducing infections from preventable diseases. Perera (2018) explains that the economic model is useful in pushing for effective planning to issue vaccines to prevent potential diseases in the society. The public interventions in vaccines should also be assessed to avoid affecting the health economics of a free market.
Another common myth is that most health diseases are not serious. The belief is not based on scientific and it could lead to serious health vulnerabilities to people who believes it. The truth is that all diseases requiring vaccination are serious. The diseases could cause severe illness, medical complications and even death if proper medical intervention is not provided. It is because most of the illnesses do not have proper cure. For example, Davidson (2017) determined that there is a risk for measles outbreak. The measles complications that emerges often leads to death of 10% of the cases recorded. Tetanus complication also leads to death of 10% of the affected persons. Parents should understand the significance of prevent the vaccine-preventable conditions.
Measures of dispersion are common statistical processes used in the evaluation of the various health conditions. The statistical processes help to review the standard deviation and range that is useful in understanding the need for vaccination programs. According to Pluviano et al. (2017), the economic costs and benefits of are high. The economic costs are associated with the cost of purchasing the vaccines from pharmaceutical and administering the vaccines to the population. The government is forced to invest heavily on the vaccination programs. However, the benefits of the vaccines are higher because it leads to a healthy population that is dependable on improving economic growth and productivity. Vaccines helps to reduce the costs associated with treating and curing diseases that could have been prevented at a lower cost.
Statistically, vaccine-preventable conditions often have severe health complications, which can only be avoided through the immunization programs. Vaccine-preventable diseases belongs to the childhood phase of a person’s growth is a certain myth. Some people believe that it is good to have disease rather than being immunized through the vaccination phase. The myth has been disputed by the various statistical records that confirms that diseases can be prevented through vaccination only. For instance, Perera (2018) records that over 226,000 people are usually hospitalized suffering from influenza complications that includes 20,000 young children, while over 36,000 persons often die from influenza infection every year. Vaccinations often stimulates the human immune system to generate immune responses to counter infections. However, they do not lead to diseases or placing the immunized individuals at potential health risks.
Conclusion
In summary, vaccination is better than waiting to treat the diseases. Vaccines offers a good opportunity to improve the immunity of a person making it possible to fight off potential health illnesses. Common myths about vaccination is that vaccines cause illnesses, vaccination does not fully prevent diseases, and it is not relevant to immunize a child when other children about them they have good immunity. Based on scientific evidence, these myths have been proven to be incorrect. Vaccination is safe and does not contribute to illnesses because the vaccines undergoes serious production and monitoring process. Even after persons have been vaccinated, the health organizations from the government continues to assess for potential side effects. Such processes help to reduce potential health effects from vaccines. Social optimality economic model also suggests that it is benefit to vaccine people as a way of improve the economic health.
References
Davidson, M. (2017). Vaccination as a cause of autism—myths and controversies. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 19(4), 403.
Jacob, V., Chattopadhyay, S. K., Hopkins, D. P., Morgan, J. M., Pitan, A. A., Clymer, J. M., & Community Preventive Services Task Force. (2016). Increasing coverage of appropriate vaccinations: a community guide systematic economic review. American journal of preventive medicine, 50(6), 797-808.
Mitra, T., Counts, S., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2016, May). Understanding Anti-Vaccination Attitudes in Social Media. In ICWSM (pp. 269-278).
Perera, P. (2018). Facts and myths about BCG vaccination. Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 47(2), 186.
Pluviano, S., Watt, C., & Della Sala, S. (2017). Misinformation lingers in memory: failure of three pro-vaccination strategies. PloS one, 12(7), e0181640.
