Daycares of America

12345 Company Ave, Albuquerque, NM 87113

March 21, 2015
Jennifer Gallegos
Chair of Human Resources
Daycares of America
12345 Company Ave
Albuquerque, NM 87113
Dear Jennifer,
Here is the paper you have requested on the benefits of educating people in our systems on
vaccinating their children.
Feel free to use this information however you need, and I welcome any further questions or
comments you may have.
Briana Salas,
Daycare Leader

Vaccination Education

Whether or not to vaccinate has become a large topic in modern day society, especially
with celebrities advocating for a vaccine free life. While we would all like to be akin the
celebrities we see every day on our TV screens, it is better to know what we are getting ourselves
into. Because we support daycares across the country it should be very important for us to know
the problems that can arise in our establishments. While we cannot convince all parents to
vaccinate their children, we should try our hardest to let them be aware of the consequences of
their actions. Increasing publications in our newsletters and informational posters around the
buildings will allow parents as well as children to become more aware. Not vaccinating children
is a danger not only to the unprotected child, but also to all children around them. This could
easily be the cause of a national or international break out of diseases. There are testimonies
made by parents saying that vaccines caused a sickness in their child but there are many articles
and statements made by credible sources that explain the benefits behind vaccinating and the
consequences of not.
Schools and governments have seen the problems with children not being vaccinated. In
an Australian article about their governments attempts to increase vaccination in 1997 they
discuss the problems with the government pushing parents into protecting their children from
diseases. The Australian government tried to make vaccinations a requirement to enter school for
that year. This is not foreign to me as my school required the same of all students. But this was
denied so they tried something else. This time they tried to offer a cash reward for each vaccine
given to their child in the school system as well as a cash penalty for not vaccinating. They also
tried setting up vaccination stations inside shopping malls to encourage vaccinating (Leso, pars.
3-4). While all of these seem like good ways to encourage parents to immunize their kids, the
article argues that this does not solve the right problem. People do not immunize their kids not

because they dont have to but because they dont want to. As the article puts it: the Government
attributes their failing vaccination program to complacent but consenting parents (Leso, par. 7).
Parents should have enough information to know the benefits and make their own decision after
that. The reason behind these pushes was not only for the benefit of the government, which was
the main problem parents had with these, but also to get the children prepared and healthy for
school and their daily lives.
In an article written by the Harvard Medical School they concisely report who should and
should not be vaccinated against influenza. Seeing as this is a notable source that used plenty of
research I would have to agree what they say, personally. Their list of those that should be
vaccinated is as follows:
The influenza vaccine is highly recommended for the following high risk
groups:

Anyone 65 years of age or older

Residents of nursing homes and other long-term health care

facilities, regardless of their age

Anyone with chronic lung or heart lung disease, including those

with asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and heart failure

Anyone who has required regular follow-up or a hospital stay

within the past year for chronic medical problems including kidney disease,
diabetes, and anemia

Anyone with a weakened immune system due to HIV/AIDS,

cancer, or certain medications (such as prednisone or cancer chemotherapy)

Women who will be past the third month of pregnancy during the
influenza season (November through April)

Children and adolescents on chronic aspirin therapy (due to the

risk of
The vaccine is also recommended for the following people:

Adults aged 50 to 65

Children aged 6 months to 23 months

People who can transmit influenza to someone at high risk,

including the parents of young children, other household and day-care contacts,
health- care workers, and employees of chronic care and assisted-living facilities

Almost anyone else who wants to avoid getting the flu this winter
(Harvard, pars. 2-5).

While we are working within the daycare system, we have a few of these people on our list. Not
only should our staff be vaccinated to prevent giving illnesses to the infants, but all of the
children in the system as well as their parents should receive some sort of vaccination against the
most common, and potentially deadly sickness to arise amongst children. This leads to being
somewhat of a domino effect, but while focusing on the ones closest to our concern, the children
of our systems should be well vaccinated for at least the influenza. Most children nowadays are
in daycare systems, which means that by starting there we will see a large decrease in the amount
of people sick with the flu and other contagious diseases.
A novel infection new and previously unconfronted that spreads globally and
results in a high incidence of morbidity (sickness) and mortality (death) has been described as
a pandemic (Doherty, 42). The flu of 1918-1919 is an example of this. With parents not
vaccinating children, this could easily happen again. While some of the children that are
vaccinated could be safe, even those that receive vaccines can be at risk of getting sick when a
virus mutates over time. A virus has to have a place to start, and the easiest target is an
unvaccinated person. The flu is already a very widespread problem that occurs every year due to
its mutations and could easily become as bad as in the 1900s with the lower number of people
getting protected.
There are people that do not believe vaccines work because they hear about families that
have lost loved ones shorty after having received a vaccine. But who is to say it wasnt caused by
something else? In Kurt Links book on vaccines he explains that there needs to be trials in order
to fully know if a vaccine works. There are many problems with this that he talks about though.
There is a very good chance that the two groups will be quite different with regard to health

consciousness, lifestyle, diet, exercise, perhaps smoking, and other confounders that might affect
the likelihood of getting the infection that we are trying to prevent. A difference in the infection
rate might be due to one of these or other, unknown, factors rather than the vaccine (179). He
says that the solution to many of these problems is a prospective double blind randomized,
controlled clinical trial (177). The last issue to arise is an ethical one where people receive a
placebo and may not benefit. They must have people that volunteer for these trials because of
this. While I can understand people not wanting to put themselves at risk, it is because of the lack
of studies that parents are unwilling to protect their own children.
One of these people that had a problem with vaccinations was the author of a personal
story of her experience with vaccinations and her child. She said it was normal for her to get her
children vaccinated even though it was hard to see her children in pain. After a shot her daughter
got very ill. She included a short history of vaccines in her book. She also questions why many
people choose to vaccinate. She writes This high turnout is not in response to a compulsory
vaccination programme, as in America. So what is it that gets parents to the surgery door? A
strong sense that as a responsible and socially aware parent, you vaccinate, for the good of your
child and for society at large. This feeling, or social conscience, underpins the herd immunity
theory, which means that if enough children are vaccinated usually around 95 per cent then
the disease does not have sufficient population to circulate (Alexander, 153). She is right about
all of it though. We do need to vaccinate in order to cut down on the illness of todays world.
While some people do have a reaction to vaccines and may suffer from them, there is a high
number of people that survive because of them. There are issues with things other than vaccines

that can cause someone to die that are very popular. Foods, materials, pollens, even things as
common as tattoos can change someones fate forever, but that doesnt mean we stop.
We should all care about the well being of the next generations. As a community we can
try to make a difference and increase awareness. Nothing needs to start out big, and good things
come from small ideas. We could potentially have a domino effect that spreads across states and
national borders. We have to start somewhere and that somewhere is in our own daycares and
offices.

Works Cited
Flu Vaccine: Who Should and Who Should Not Get the Shot." Harvard Medical
School Commentaries on Health. Boston: Harvard Health Publications, 2014.
Credo Reference. Web. 24 Feb 2015.
Alexander, Mary. Calling the Shots: Childhood Vaccination - One Family's Journey.
London:
Jessica Kingsley, 2003. Internet resource.

Doherty, Peter C.. Pandemics : What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, USA, 2013. Ebook Library. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
Leso, John. "Government Gets Tough on Vaccinations: Who's really Behind the
Push?" Vaccination? Feb 28 1997: 8-10. ProQuest. Web. 24 Feb. 2015 .
Link, Kurt. The Vaccine Controversy : The History, Use, And Safety Of Vaccinations.
Westport, Conn: Praeger Publishers, 2005. eBook Academic Collection
(EBSCOhost). Web. 24 Feb. 2015.