Running Head: VACCINATIONS

Vaccinations, Should They Be Required?

Nikkita Arras
University of Texas at El Paso

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Abstract

This paper discusses the controversial topic about if vaccinations should become a federal
requirement. The two different viewpoints are discussed through an article supporting those who
believe it is everyones choice to vaccinate their children and an image that supports vaccinations
and believes they saves childrens lives. The article is written by David Kupelian in the World
Net Daily (WND) and informs readers about the different side effects vaccines have and why
vaccinations should not be a federal requirement but rather a choice. The image is from the
organization United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) from the Medical Diseases Base, which
supports the view that vaccinations are used to help prevent life threatening illnesses. An
additional source from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
(APIC) is used to help inform individuals how vaccines have been used for decades to prevent
spreading diseases, which supports the view that vaccinations are used to benefit those who get
them. Each of the sources are broken down and analyzed to help discuss the topic of vaccinations
and if they should become a federal requirement.

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Vaccinations, Should They Be Required?

Vaccinations have recently become one of the most controversial topics and people are
wondering if they should be a requirement or if it should be up to the parents whether their child
is vaccinated. There are some individuals who want the government to make it a law that
vaccinations become a requirement for all children in every state within the United States.
According to Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, vaccinations
have helped protect current generations and it protects future generations by stopping the spread
of disease (APIC, 2013). Many of the widespread diseases that have history killing an immense
amount of people in previous years have been prevented from spreading. However, on the
opposing side there are individuals who have heard negative stories about vaccinations or believe
vaccines are against their religious belief and think the federal government should not have a say
in how they raise their children. Those individuals that want vaccinations to become a
requirement believe that the vaccines are the solution to stopping life threatening diseases from
entering childrens bodies and one of the reasons they lose their lives. Individuals that believe
vaccinations requirement should be the parents choice are the ones that believe the stories that
portray vaccines as the problem.
There have been recent stories that involve children receiving a vaccination and ending
up in worse conditions than before they got the vaccine. David Kupelian who wrote The Dark
Side of Vaccines shared one of these stories in an article about a family that gave their little girl
a pertussis shot when she was younger and the now-teenage girl [is] confined to a wheelchair,
unable to speak [because of] a required vaccine shot (Kupelian, 2007). After hearing this story

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other parents, caregivers, and doctors started to question if vaccinations are there to help children
or hurt them.
Despite there being stories about vaccinations working against children there are still
many people that believe vaccines are the best option. There are many organizations that support
vaccinations and believe they should be a requirement for all children. An image from UNICEF
(United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund) shows their endorsement for pro
vaccinations as they state the fact that 1 child dies every 20 seconds from vaccines-preventable
diseases (Medical Disease Base, 2014). Once parents and caregivers read about organizations
supporting vaccines they start to believe that vaccinations are best for their children and will save
them from life threatening diseases.
The article that wrote the story about the now teenage girl who is suffering the
consequences from receiving the vaccination was trying to inform mothers, fathers, and
caregivers of young children about this horrific story. They wanted to inform people that they
have choices when it comes to having their children vaccine. Kupelian, the writer of the article,
wanted to share this familys story to show that they are one of many that has had a negative
experience with vaccinations.
On the other hand, the image wanted to show and give parents and caregivers information
about how vaccinations help save their children from illnesses. They wanted to promote how
vaccinations can save lives and by making them a requirement for all children and it come help
with the mortality rate for children dying with vaccine preventable illnesses. UNICEF wanted to
do this type of image to bring attention that vaccines prevent the spread of lethal diseases.
These pieces both want to gain the attention of parents and caregivers however the article
was focusing on those that were not fully accepting of vaccines while the image was aiming

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more towards those in favor of vaccinations. The difference between the article and image would
be the points trying to be made since one is trying to promote vaccines while the other is trying
to show that they should be a choice to receive them. Even though each piece had different
perspective on vaccinations and their requirement both were able to gain the attention of their
audience and show this topic should be taken seriously.
To make sure the article and visual got their points made and to persuade the readers they
had to be sure they included ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos within the piece would create
credibility and would help allow the audience to know the information being presented can be
trusted. The pathos is used to get emotional feedback from the readers and help the writers point
of view to come across on a more personally level. Lastly, the logos would help present facts that
support their outlook on the topic. These rhetorical issues are crucial to have in the pieces since
they helped the article and image get their point of view across.
In The Dark Side of Vaccines the ethos was not presented since the writer of the article,
David Kupelian, is not a well-known journalist. However, he wrote about creditability by
including quotes from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, however this does
not make himself creditable. The website the article is available at World Net Daily (WND),
which could provide some creditability since it is a known website that helps discuss recent
news.
In the article they created pathos by sharing the story of the teenager affected by the
vaccine she received when she was younger. This gained the attention of the audience
emotionally since the story scared parents and caregivers because they would never want this to
happen to their children or to any other child. They wanted the audience to connect personally
with what that family is now going through because of a decision made years before.

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David Kupelian had logos in his article by using different statistics about how some
vaccines have caused health problems. Such as a statistic that stated WDN reported at least
three deaths and more than 1,600 adverse reactions including spontaneous abortion and paralysis
have already been connected to the Merck vaccine, called Gardasil (Kupelian, 2007). By using
logos within the article the readers will be able to see that this is a reliable source and cause them
to look more into vaccinations before receiving them.
The image from UNICEF had ethos when they included their logo on the top center of
the visual since individuals know what this organization stands for. When the audience of this
piece first view the image they will be able to see that United Nations International Childrens
Emergency Fund is in favor for vaccinations and believe they are the solution to preventing life
threatening illnesses from entering the body. Parents and caregivers will see this visual and know
that vaccinations are recommended by these important organizations such as UNICEF.
The pathos in the visual would be how the readers felt sad and helpless once they read
about how children have died from vaccine preventable diseases and how UNICEF believes
zero children should be denied lifesaving vaccines, [and how] vaccinating every child stops
disease in its tracks (Medical Diseases Base, 2014). This has an emotional affect on the readers
since they start thinking about how if they do not give their children the vaccinations that are
recommended then they could be the one that loses their child.
Within the visual there was many facts that help support their view on vaccinations and
why they believe they should become a requirement. One of the many facts that were used
included 1 vaccine can prevent 5 diseases (Medical Diseases Base, 2014). In the visual it
shows that vaccinations are important throughout the world and that the UNICEF supports
different programs that fight for immunizations.

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The writer of The Dark Side of Vaccines was able to capture the attention of their
audience because of the layout of their article. They designed this passage by making sure they
present a story that captures readers attention on how vaccines may not be the best option for
children and kept their focus by later talking about the negative side affects the vaccines could
have. The only limitations the article faced was they were not able to make the passage visually
appealing since visuals would not be used as much as they would be in an image and they had to
use a certain type of language to show readers this information is reliable.
The visual was able to make their viewpoint stand out since their layout consisted of
being able to be more appealing to the eye. They used specific fonts, colors, and pictures to catch
the audiences attention and were able to keep it by sharing the information they did. The
limitations the image faced was the amount of room available to write their point of view and
had to write only about the shocking statistics since they did not as much space as an article.
In each of the pieces they were able to get their perspective through to the audience and
prove why their views are the best choice for children. The Dark Side of Vaccines was more
effective in the emotional area since they shared a story of a family that was personally affected
by vaccines. However, the visual was more effective in capturing the audiences attention since it
looked more appealing and kept their attention by including different facts that was given within
the image. The impact of these genres allowed the audience to think in two different ways and
showed the readers that vaccinations are both accepted and denied by many people.

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References

Associations for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. (2013). Vaccination saves
lives. APIC. Retrieved from http://www.apic.org/For-Consumers/Monthly-alerts-forconsumers/Article?id=vaccination-saves-lives
Kupelian, David. (2007). The Dark Side of Vaccines. World Net Daily. Retrieved from
http://www.wnd.com/2007/06/41993/
United Nations Childrens Fund. (2014). Think Big [Digital Image]. Medical Diseases Base.
Retrieved from http://mdisbase.com/article/when-it-comes-to-immunization-8-groundtruths-of-global-vaccine-scenario-in-both-children-adults