Great Debate over Vaccine Exemptions

Many families and society have their own opinions over whether or not vaccine
exemptions should be minimized, in my own opinion, I believe they should. Knowing that my
child will be vaccinated and protected, while others are not, puts the rest of society at risk of
being infected with diseases that could have been prevented. Kristen A. Feemsters article in the
New York Times, Eliminate Vaccine Exemptions matches up perfectly with the main points that
I am going to express, which is without free choice exemptions these outbreaks we are seeing in
todays society would not exist. Kristen is a well-known pediatric infectious diseases and health
service researcher at a well-known hospital. Alongside Kristens article, I have Patrick
Andersons article in the Argus Leader, The Vaccine Debate: Rising Exemptions Stoke
Concerns that uses all three appeals to argue why vaccine exemptions have gotten out of hand.
He simply formats the facts and examples perfectly so that his readers understand the
importance and purpose of vaccinations. Lastly I will use Barbara Fischers article out of USA
Today, Leave parents free to choose vaccines to show the opposing sides point of view, which
is parents should have the right to choose to be vaccinated or not. In the paragraphs to follow, I
will effectively use all three articles to not only prove that exemptions should be minimized, but
that there is more of a risk in not getting vaccinated than to be vaccinated.
With parents thinking vaccinations will cause more harm than good, many of them
choose to not vaccinate out of what they think is whats best for their child. Being a new parent, I
believe in doing what is best for my child, which is to be vaccinated. While stated in Barbara
Fischers article, When doctors cannot predict who will be harmed by a vaccine and cannot
guarantee that those who have been vaccinated wont get infected or transmit infection, the
ethical principle of informed consent becomes a civil, human and parental right that must be

safeguarded in U.S. Law. (Line 22-25) this assumption simply states that she feels the risk of
getting a vaccine outweighs the positives of receiving them. It is proven through research and
studies that since vaccines were invented, they have seen a drastic decrease in the number of
illnesses reported.
Measles is one of the big outbreak scares that have reared its ugly head in the past few
years. As Patricks article gives us some past history of the measles and how the vaccine is
proven to work when society chooses to partake in getting them. The first measles vaccine in
the United States was licensed in 1963. Before 1963, there were about half-million reported
measles cases each year, with about 500 measles-related deaths. Resurging again in 1989, it
claiming the lives of at least 120 people in two years, with more than 55,000 cases reported
during the same two-year time span. Now that being said the number of deaths and reported
cases going down majorly since the vaccination was introduced. I would have to say that the
measles vaccination is an effective vaccination and proves, to society, that it does indeed work.
Many of those who think, Non-medical vaccine exemptions immunize individuals and the
community against unsafe, ineffective vaccines and tyranny. (Line 26-27. Fischer) the history of
the measles tells no lies as to how effective they are if taken like they should be.
Knowing that the death and illness by infectious diseases rates are going down, many
people in communities across America think it is okay to not let their children get vaccinated,
because they see no risk in not getting them. As Kristen Feemster describes, We are fortunate to
live in an era when we rarely see many vaccine-preventable diseases the risk of these diseases
seems minimal while the perceived risk of vaccination becomes larger. This compounded by the
proliferation of misinformation, readily available from the news media and other sources. This
has resulted in what many describe as the vaccine confidence gap. (Line 34-40) This gap is

what the great debate is all about, where everyone is putting in their two cents causing untrue and
false information to surface. The general public will read and believe everything on the internet,
which 99.9% of the time is untrue and made up to spark debate. I know many have their own
opinions, but the risk of not getting vaccinated has been proven and everyone should listen.
Now knowing vaccines are not 100% effective, but the risk of not getting it is outweighed
by everything else. There are many individuals who medically cannot receive the vaccinations
and these individuals depend on those around them to be vaccinated. If everyone around you is
vaccinated and you are not there is the slight chance you may get it, but the odd are highly
unlikely due to your community being vaccinated. Vaccines arent the only situation in which
we are asked to care about our neighbors. Following traffic laws, drug tests at work, paying
taxes-- these may go against our beliefs and make us bristle, but we ascribe to them because
without this shared responsibility, civil society doesnt work. (Line 16-21. Feemster) This
analogy is very clear not only do these situations go hand in hand with vaccines, but helping thy
neighbors that medically cannot get vaccinated is the better choice.
A big fear parents have is that vaccines will cause their children to have medical issues
such as autism. Patrick says it best within his article, using excellent resources to back up his
claim, There are no links between vaccines and autism, according to the CDC and the Institute
of Medicine. Faulty research in the United Kingdom sparked widespread fears over potential
causation between vaccines and autism, but the 1998 study by English doctor Andrew Wakefield
has long been discredited. (Line 251-255) No matter how many celebrities want to claim
vaccines caused their childs autism, it has not been proven. The uneducated people who put
these rumors out there for everyone to see, is causing the fear society has towards vaccines.

My mother has always told me that it is better to be safe than sorry, and I believe that can
refer to vaccines as well. I would rather know my child is safe from the diseases than to not have
them vaccinated and suffer later down the road. The children are not old enough to make
decisions for them and parents should become more educated on their choice before they make
them for the lives of others. As told by Kristen about the current vaccine schedule, The behavior
or intervention needs to be safe and effective, and the risk of not participating in the behavior
needs to outweigh any risk from the behavior. The currently recommended vaccine schedule
meets those criteria. (Line 24-28) The vaccines are safe and effective and should be given to
everyone that can receive them. The exemptions should only go towards those that actually need
them and not towards people that just dont feel like getting them or who are misinformed.
To wrap things up, the evidence I have presented to you as a reader can help you be more
informed as a member of your community. It can also help minimize the false and negative
statements across the internet that state vaccines are unsafe and ineffective, because they have
been proven to help lower the death and illness rates down. Every point made within the
previous paragraphs was backed up by well-known establishments and doctors. Kristens article
and Patricks article were very helpful with expressing the truth behind the great vaccine debate.
The risk of not getting vaccinated does outweigh the risk within the vaccine itself, so therefore
American citizens and society can see that the personal exemptions need to be minimized for the
better of not only your families, but for the nation in which you live in.

Work Cited
Kristen A. Feemster. Eliminate Vaccine Exemptions. New York Times. 5 March 2015. Web. 25
April 2015.
Barbara L. Fischer. Leave Parents Free to Choose Vaccines. USA Today. 13 April 2015. Web.
25 April 2015.

Patrick Anderson. The Vaccine Debate: Rising Exemptions Stoke Concerns. Argus Leader. 21
Feb 2015. Web. 25 April 2015.