VACCINES: HISTORY, ARGUMENTS, AND SCHOOL POLICY
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VACCINES: HISTORY, ARGUMENTS, AND SCHOOL POLICY
Learning Goal: Understand the history of disease and vaccines, and
recognize the tension between respecting an individual’s choice not to
be vaccinated and the need for widespread vaccination to ensure the
health of the entire community.
Vaccination: Injection of a killed microbe in
order to stimulate the immune system
against the microbe, thereby preventing
disease.
Also known as Immunizations
Works by stimulating the immune
system, the natural disease-fighting
system of the body.
The healthy immune system is able to recognize invading
bacteria and viruses and produce antibodies to destroy or
disable them.
Immunizations prepare the immune system to ward off a
disease
Immunity and Vaccines Explained
Key Facts:
1. Vaccines have greatly reduced the incidence of infectious
diseases historically
2. Not everybody can receive
vaccinations (medical and
religious reasons)
Immunosuppressed/immuno
compromised individuals
who have a wreaked or no
immune system have no
natural fighters to ward off
even the smallest dose of a
live vaccine.
Certain religions and belief systems promote alternative perspectives
toward vaccination. Religious objections to vaccines are based generally
on (1) the ethical dilemmas associated with using human tissue cells to
create vaccines, and (2) beliefs that the body is sacred, should not
receive certain chemicals or blood or tissues from animals, and should be
healed by God or natural means.
3. Everyone in the community is
protected from outbreaks if a large
percentage of members of the
community are vaccinated; this is
called Herd Immunity (Community
Immunity).
4. Once the number of people fall
below a certain threshold, the disease
can regain a foothold and all
unvaccinated individuals in the
community are at a higher risk of
contracting the disease.
Herd Immunity and Gummy Bears
History of Vaccines
Chinese employed smallpox inoculation as early as 1000
CE
1670s-1776 Smallpox, Rubella, Diphtheria, and Measles
Epidemics (a widespread occurrence of an infectious
disease in a community at a particular time).
1796- Edward Jenner use of cowpox material to create
immunity to smallpox
1885- French chemist, Louis Pasteur, developed what he
called a rabies vaccine
1890- Kitasato immunized Guinea pigs with Diphtheria
Antitoxin
1895- The New York City Health Department began
producing diphtheria antitoxin this year as well. Deaths
from the disease began to drop as the treatment was
increasingly used.
1908- Polio Virus Identified.
1922- United States schools required smallpox
vaccination before children could attend
The first influenza vaccine was approved for
military use in the United States in 1945 and
civilian use in 1946
1940s-1950s- Polio Epidemic in US- It reached a
peak in 1952, when over 58,000 cases were
reported, more than 2,100 of them were
paralytic cases; including 3,145 deaths
1953- Thomas Weller, MD, was the first to isolate
the varicella (Chicken Pox and Singles) virus.
1958- First Measles Vaccine
1960- Oral polio Vaccine (Sugar Cubes)
1971- First Combination Vaccine (MMR)
1980- The World Health Assembly declared the
world free from smallpox
1981- Hepatitis B Vaccine, and Chicken Pox Vaccine
1989-1991- Measles Reemergence in the US
1994- Polio declared eradicated from the Americas
2000- Measles Eliminated from the US.
2008- America measles rates increase
2009- Pertussis (whooping cough) cases reported to
the California Department of Health between
January 1 and June 30 had increased by 418% over
those reported during the same period in 2009.
2014- Measles outbreak in elimination era: 644
cases of measles in 2014, the highest number of U.S.
cases in any year since measles was declared
eliminated in 2000.
2015- Disneyland (California) measles outbreak.
The Argument:
The CDC recommends getting 28 doses of 10 vaccines for kids aged 0 to six. No
US federal laws mandate vaccination, but all 50 states require certain vaccinations
for children entering public schools.
Proponents:
Vaccination is safe and one of the greatest health developments of the 20th
century.
Illnesses (rubella, diphtheria, smallpox, polio, and whooping cough) are now
prevented by vaccination and millions of children’s lives are saved.
They contend adverse reactions to vaccines are extremely rare.
Opponents:
Child’s immune systems can deal with most infections naturally, and that injecting
questionable vaccine ingredients into a child may cause side effects, including
seizures, paralysis, and death.
They contend that numerous studies prove that vaccines may trigger problems like
autism, ADHD, and diabetes.
Article: Washington Post- “Get Kids Vaccinated Or Else”
Ethical Question to Consider: Should school-aged children be
required to be vaccinated to go to school? (Under what
conditions, if any, should a state grant exemptions to its school
vaccination policy?
HW: Think about the Ethical Question and on the bottom of your
notes, list what information you would need to know in order to
answer the ethical question.