Vaccines

A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular disease.
A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often
made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins or one of its surface proteins. The
agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as a threat, destroy it, and keep
a record of it, so that the immune system can more easily recognize and destroy any of these
microorganisms that it later encounters. Examples : Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR combined

vaccine) Varicella (chickenpox), Influenza (nasal spray) and Rotavirus.

BENEFITS
Infections caused byHaemophilus influenzae, a major cause of bacterial meningitis and other
serious diseases in children, have decreased by over 99% in the US since the introduction of a
vaccine in 1988. Full vaccination, from birth to adolescence, of all US children born in a given year
saves an estimated 33,000 lives and prevents an estimated 14 million infections.

Population health
Incomplete vaccine coverage increases the risk of disease for the entire population, including those
who have been vaccinated, because it reduces herd immunity. Herd immunity is a form

of immunity that occurs when the vaccination of a significant portion of a population (or herd)
provides a measure of protection for individuals who have not developed immunity. Increasing
herd immunity during an outbreak or threatened outbreak is perhaps the most widely accepted
justification for mass vaccination. Mass vaccination also helps to increase coverage rapidly, thus
obtaining herd immunity, when a new vaccine is introduced.

Cost-effectiveness
Commonly used vaccines are a cost-effective and preventive way of promoting health, compared to
the treatment of acute or chronic disease. In the US during the year 2001, routine childhood
immunizations against seven diseases were estimated to save over $40 billion per birth-year cohort
in overall social costs, including $10 billion in direct health costs, and the societal benefit-cost ratio
for these vaccinations was estimated to be 16.5.

Eradication of disease
With some vaccines, a goal of vaccination policies is to eradicate the disease - make it disappear
from Earth altogether. The
eradicate smallpox globally.

World Health Organization coordinated the global effort to

Victory

is

also

claimed

for

getting

rid

of

endemic measles, mumps and rubella in Finland. The last naturally occurring case of smallpox
occurred in Somalia in 1977. In 1988, the governing body of WHO targeted polio for eradication by
the year 2000, but didn't succeed. The next eradication target would most likely be measles, which
has declined since the introduction of measles vaccination in 1963.

Individual versus group goals

Rational individuals will attempt to minimize the risk of illness, and will seek vaccination for
themselves or their children if they perceive a high threat of disease and a low risk to vaccination.
However, if a vaccination program successfully reduces the disease threat, it may reduce the
perceived risk of disease enough so that an individual's optimal strategy is to encourage everyone
but their family to be vaccinated, or (more generally) to refuse vaccination at coverage levels below
those optimal for the community. For example, a 2003 study found that a bioterrorist attack
using smallpox would result in conditions where voluntary vaccination would be unlikely to reach the
optimum level for the U.S. as a whole, and a 2007 study found that severe influenza
epidemics cannot

be

prevented

by

voluntary

vaccination

without

offering

certain

incentives. Governments often allow exemptions to mandatory vaccination for religious or

philosophical reasons, but decreased rates of vaccination may cause loss of herd immunity,
substantially increasing risks even to vaccinated individuals.

Events following reductions in vaccination

UK, pertussis (1970s80s)
In a 1974 report ascribing 36 reactions to whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine, a prominent publichealth academic claimed that the vaccine was only marginally effective and questioned whether its
benefits outweigh its risks, and extended television and press coverage caused a scare. Vaccine
uptake in the UK decreased from 81% to 31%, and pertussis epidemics followed, leading to the
deaths of some children. Mainstream medical opinion continued to support the effectiveness and
safety of the vaccine; public confidence was restored after the publication of a national
reassessment of vaccine efficacy. Vaccine uptake then increased to levels above 90%, and disease
incidence declined dramatically

Nigeria, polio, measles, diphtheria (2001)

In the early first decade of the 21st century, conservative religious leaders in northern Nigeria,
suspicious of Western medicine, advised their followers not to have their children vaccinated with
oral polio vaccine. The boycott was endorsed by the governor of Kano State, and immunization was
suspended for several months. Subsequently, polio reappeared in a dozen formerly polio-free
neighbors of Nigeria, and genetic tests showed the virus was the same one that originated in
northern Nigeria. Nigeria had become a net exporter of the polio virus to its African neighbors.
People in the northern states were also reported to be wary of other vaccinations, and Nigeria
reported over 20,000 measles cases and nearly 600 deaths from measles from January through
March 2005.[54] In 2006, Nigeria accounted for over half of all new polio cases worldwide.
[55]

Outbreaks continued thereafter; for example, at least 200 children died in a late-2007 measles

outbreak in Borno State.[56]

Multiple states, United States, measles (2013)
In 2000, measles was declared eliminated from the United States because internal transmission had
been interrupted for one year; remaining reported cases were due to importation
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the three biggest outbreaks of
measles in 2013 were attributed to clusters of people who were unvaccinated due to their
philosophical or religious beliefs. As of August 2013, three pockets of outbreakNew York City,
North Carolina, and Texascontributed to 64% of the 159 cases of measles reported in 16 states
The number of cases in 2014 quadrupled to 644 including transmission by unvaccinated visitors to
Disneyland in California.[63] Some 97% of cases in the first half of the year were confirmed to be due
directly or indirectly to importation (the remainder were unknown), and 49% from the Phillippines.
165 of the 288 victims (57%) during that time were confirmed to be unvaccinated by choice; 30
(10%) were confirmed to have been vaccinated.

OPPOSTION TO VACCINES
Autism controversies
2011 journal article described the vaccine-autism connection as "the most damaging medical hoax of
the last 100 years". 2013 Journal of Pediatrics, USA states that autism is not linked to vaccines.

Governments Should Not Infringe On an Individual's Freedom to Choose Medications,

Even If That Choice Increases the Risk of Disease to Themselves and Others
If a vaccination program successfully reduces the disease threat, it may reduce the perceived risk of
disease enough that an individual's optimal strategy is to refuse vaccination at coverage levels below
those optimal for the community.
Exempting some people from mandatory vaccination results in a free-rider problem, in which a few
individuals gain the advantage of herd immunity without paying the cost; decreased rates of
vaccinations such as through exemptions may cause loss of herd immunity, substantially increasing
risks even to certain vaccinated individuals.

Religion
1. Some Christian opponents argued, when vaccination was first becoming widespread, that if God
had decreed that someone should die of smallpox, it would be a sin to thwart God's will via
vaccination. Many governments allow parents to opt out of their children's otherwise mandatory
vaccinations for religious reasons; some parents falsely claim religious beliefs to get vaccination
exemptions.
2. The Haredi burqa sect in Israel took a moral stand against vaccinations or medical treatments,
which led to the death of at least one baby from untreated influenza.
3. The cell culture media of some viral vaccines, and the virus of the rubella vaccine, are derived
from tissues taken from therapeutic abortions performed in the 1960s, leading to moral questions.
For example, the principle of double effect, originated by Thomas Aquinas, holds that actions with
both good and bad consequences are morally acceptable in specific circumstances, and the
question is how this principle applies to vaccination
4. The Vatican Curia has expressed concern about the rubella vaccine's embryonic cell origin,
saying that Catholics have "a grave responsibility to use alternative vaccines and to make a
conscientious objection with regard to those which have moral problems." The Vatican concluded
that until an alternative becomes available, it is acceptable for Catholics to use the existing vaccine,
writing, "This is an unjust alternative choice, which must be eliminated as soon as possible."

Chiropractic
Its belief that all diseases were traceable to causes in the spine and therefore could not be
affected by vaccines; Daniel D. Palmer, the founder of chiropractic, wrote, "It is the very height of
absurdity to strive to 'protect' any person from smallpox or any other malady by inoculating them with

a filthy animal. The American Chiropractic Association and the International Chiropractic Association
support individual exemptions to compulsory vaccination laws; a 1995 survey of US chiropractors
found that about one third believed there was no scientific proof that immunization prevents disease
Some chiropractic groups still oppose attempts to limit or eliminate nonmedical exemptions to
vaccination. In March 2015, the Oregon Chiropractic Association invited Andrew Wakefield, chief
author of a fraudulent research paper, to testify against Senate Bill 442,[126] "a bill that would eliminate
nonmedical exemptions from Oregon's school immunization law." [127] The California Chiropractic
Association lobbied against a 2015 bill ending belief exemptions for vaccines. They had also
opposed

2012

bill

related

to

vaccination

exemptions.

Homeopathy
Several surveys have shown that some practitioners of homeopathy, particularly homeopaths
without any medical training, advise patients against vaccination. [129]For example, a survey of
registered homeopaths in Austria found that only 28% considered immunization an important
preventive measure, and 83% of homeopaths surveyed in Sydney, Australia, did not recommend
vaccination.

Financial motives (conspiracy theory)

Critics have accused the vaccine industry of misrepresenting the safety and effectiveness of
vaccines, covering up and suppressing information, and influencing health policy decisions for
financial gain.[2] Conversely, many groups profit by promoting the controversiality of vaccines, such
as lawyers who receive fees often totalling millions of dollars, expert witnesses paid to provide
testimony and to speak at conferences, and practitioners of alternative medicine offering ineffective
and expensive medications, supplements, and procedures such as chelation therapy and hyperbaric
oxygen therapy.[131]
In the late 20th century, vaccines were a product with low profit margins,[132] and the number of
companies involved in vaccine manufacture declined. In addition to low profits and liability risks,
manufacturers complained about low prices paid for vaccines by the CDC and other US government
agencies.[133] In the early 21st century, the vaccine market greatly improved with the approval of the
vaccine Prevnar, along with a small number of other high-priced blockbuster vaccines, such
asGardasil and Pediarix, which each had sales revenues of over $1 billion in 2008.

POLICIES ON VACCINATION
1.

United States

Exemptions are typically for people who have compromised immune systems, allergies to the
components used in vaccinations, or strongly held objections. All states but West Virginia and
Mississippi allow religious exemptions, and twenty states allow parents to cite personal or
philosophical objections. A widespread and growing number of parents claim religious and
philosophical beliefs to get vaccination exemptions, and researchers have cited these exemptions as
a contributing cause to an increasing number of disease outbreaks that have come from
communities where herd immunity was lost due to insufficient vaccination.
Supreme Court case Zucht v. King. The court decided that a school could deny admission to
children who failed to provide a certification of vaccination for the protection of the public health. In
1987, a measles epidemic occurred in Maricopa County, Arizona and another court case, Maricopa
County Health Department vs. Harmon, would examine the arguments of an individuals right to
education over the states need to protect against the spread of disease. The court decided that it is
prudent to take action to combat the spread of disease by denying un-vaccinated children back to
school until the risk for the spread of measles was confirmed
Currently, in a push to eradicate Pertussis, Tetanus, Diphtheria, Polio, Measles, Mumps, Rubella,
Varicella, and Hepatitis B from the population, schools across the United States require an
updated immunization record for all incoming and returning students.

2. In 2006, the World Health Organization and UNICEF created the Global Immunization Vision
and Strategy (GIVS). This organization created a ten-year strategy with four main goals:

to immunize more people against more diseases

to introduce a range of newly available vaccines and technologies

to integrate other critical health interventions with immunization

to manage vaccination programmes within the context of global interdependence

3. Slovenia aggressive policy. While a medical exemption request can be submitted to a

committee, such an application for reasons of religion or conscience wouldnt be acceptable, and
isnt allowed, says Alenka Kraigher, head of the communicable diseases and environmental health
center at Slovenias National Institute of Public Health. Failure to comply results in a fine and
compliance rates top 95%, Kraigher says, adding that for nonmandatory vaccines, such as the one
for human papilloma virus, coverage is below 50%.