This paper discusses the importance of vaccines for eradicating disease. It argues that vaccines are both safe and cost-effective compared to treating diseases. While some parents resist vaccines due to disproven claims about side effects, studies show that vaccines do not cause autism or weaken the immune system. Widespread vaccination through herd immunity is vital for preventing outbreaks of contagious diseases like measles, which cost millions to contain. The evidence overwhelmingly shows that vaccines are safe and essential public health tools.

1. Running head: VACCINES ARE CRITICAL 1
Vaccines are Critical to the Eradication of Disease
Grand Valley State University
Kelsey E. Stevenson

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Vaccines are Critical to the Eradication of Disease
In February 2015, an outbreak of measles occurred at Disneyland in California. Many
measles cases were reported in California, even though the measles was considered to be
eradicated as of 2000. Outbreaks of previously eradicated diseases like the measles are
happening because there is a resistance to vaccines among parents throughout the country.
Doctor-recommended vaccines should be required for children to aid in the eradication of
disease. This paper will discuss the vitality of vaccines to the eradication of disease, how
vaccines are both safe and healthy for children, and the cost of treating disease compared to the
cost of vaccinations.
Vaccines and Their Vitality to the Eradication of Disease
Many diseases that at some point in time were very common in the United States can now
be controlled through the use of vaccinations. These diseases include but are not limited to:
measles, rubella, mumps, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough). Our bodies use our immune
systems to protect from disease, but when children are young they have weaker immune systems.
It takes time for the human body to build up immunity to certain things, and for babies and
children it takes even longer. Typically what happens is someone gets infected with a virus or
bacteria, their body tries to fight it, but because this takes so long for a human body to do the
child gets sick before their immune system can fight the virus off. Vaccines were created as a
way to give children automatic immunity to a disease before they even get sick. Vaccines contain
weakened or dead versions of the antigens that cause a certain disease, but they are just strong
enough to allow the human body to develop an immunity to that disease (“Vaccines and
immunization,” 2014).

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Many parents today are making a conscious choice not to vaccinate their children.
Unfortunately, these unvaccinated children are in turn infecting other children or people at high
risk. A concept called “herd immunity” is one of the main factors in fully eradicating disease. If
a disease comes in contact with a group of people who are unvaccinated many of these people
will become infected because they do not have immunity against the disease. On the other hand,
if a large number of people in a certain area are vaccinated, the disease is less likely to spread.
The unvaccinated people are in a way “protected” by the vaccinated people. This is the simple
way that herd immunity works. If you are surrounded by a “herd” of people who are vaccinated
but you are not vaccinated, you are very unlikely to contract the disease. Vaccination rates,
however, need to be as high as 80%-95% for herd immunity to be effective (“Herd immunity,”
n.d.).
A study done by Alexander M. Capron (2015) asked students about their opinions on
vaccines and the results show that people are able to recognize the importance of herd immunity.
The specific question they were asked was, “To what extent should the state allow parents to
make choices about vaccinating their children against communicable diseases that can cause
injury or even death?” (p. 13). He gave the students a brief description of the pending bill in
California regarding vaccine mandates and some questions to consider. The students made some
very interesting points. They first said that many parents refuse vaccines because they feel that it
is in their child’s best interest, especially if they feel their community has a high level of herd
immunity. They also said that the problem with this is that if every parent thinks like this, then
herd immunity will drastically decrease. Then, in turn, the parents who choose not to vaccinate
are exposing other children to a disease (Capron, 2015). Parents need to be better informed about

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the consequences of refusing to vaccinate not only for their children health and safety but for
other children as well.
Vaccines Are Safe and Healthy for Children
If parents and doctors in our country do not push vaccines and explain how a decrease in
herd immunity can bring back previously eradicated diseases, many children’s health and well-
being is being put at risk. In a study done over a four year time period (1998-2002) over 18,000
influenza vaccinations were administered to children from ages 18 months to 18 years. There
were many factors evaluated both before and after the immunizations were given such as asthma
rates and serious adverse events. Out of the over 18,000 vaccinations given over four years, only
42 had serious adverse events that occurred, but none of them were attributed to the influenza
vaccine. There were also 6 adolescent pregnancies that occurred amongst the vaccine recipients
all of which delivered perfectly healthy babies. They also found that, despite popular belief, the
children in the study who received annual doses of the vaccination did not have an increased risk
for asthma (Piedra et. al., 2005). This is just one study out of many proving that vaccinations are
safe and healthy for children
Another concern related to the safety of vaccines is that children get too many vaccines
and that their immune systems are not strong enough to handle that many vaccines and still stay
healthy. Children currently receive 11 doctor-recommended vaccines and up to 20 shots by the
age of two. That being said, the increasing number of vaccines has reduced the number of
vaccine-preventable diseases. Despite what many parents believe, infants actually have a
stronger immune system from birth than most people think regardless of how small or fragile
they may seem. Infants are actually protected from birth by maternal immunoglobulins. These

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are transported through the placenta and breast milk. The mother passes on antibodies to her
child in order to help their immune system fight disease from day one (Offit et. al., 2002).
On top of already having a pretty tough immune system when born, infants also have the
capacity to respond to a large number of antigens. An infant, in a perfect circumstance, actually
has the capability to respond to almost 10,000 vaccines at one time. With that prediction, if 11
vaccines are given to a child at one time, they are only having to use less than 1% of their
immune system. While it also seems that there are far more vaccines than there were in the past,
vaccines now contain fewer antigens than they did back then. The fewer amount of vaccines
combined contained more antigens than the 11 vaccines being administered do today. So the
assumption that too many vaccines “weaken” a child’s immune system is actually not true at all
(Offit et. al., 2002).
Cost of Vaccines versus Cost of Disease Treatment
Not only are vaccines both safe and healthy for children, they are also cost-effective. If a
parent chooses not to vaccinate their child, they also must be aware that if their child gets
infected they will have to pay for treatment of whatever disease they contract. As mentioned
previously, in early 2015 there was a measles outbreak that started at Disneyland. There were
121 cases in 17 states at the time and unfortunately measles is a disease that was eradicated in the
United States in 2000. Measles is an extremely contagious disease—it can stay airborne for
almost two hours and once an outbreak begins, it never ends. A similarly sized outbreak in 2011
cost health departments anywhere from $2.7 million to $5.3 million. This kind of outbreak can
cost taxpayers around $10,000 per case and families almost $800 per sick child. Fortunately, the
Affordable Care Act requires that the vaccine for this disease be covered for every patient. The
problem is that people just aren’t getting vaccinated (Haelle, 2015).

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Costs are obviously high for taxpayers and health departments, but they are also high for
the infected patient themselves. If the infected person is working, they have to miss work and
take on the loss of income. Adam Powell, president of Payer+Provider Syndicate Healthcare
Consulting said, “…the median wage for people without sick days is $10 per hour. Assuming the
person works five days a week, missing a week of work would cause a loss of $400” (as cited in
Haelle, 2015). An infected person would not only have to take a loss in income, but they would
also have to pay hospitalization costs if they have to be hospitalized. The costs upon costs of
treating a disease versus getting vaccinated are so significant, that it is a wonder why so many
people choose not to vaccinate.
Not only are vaccines far less expensive than treating disease, but many children have
access to free vaccines. For example, there is a program called the “Vaccines for Children
Program” (VFC) that is federally funded and gives children access to vaccines at no cost if they
are otherwise unable to pay. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention buys the needed
vaccines at a discount and gives them to health departments, public health agencies, etc. Then the
vaccines are given to children at no cost. This program was created to help in eradicating
contagious diseases in our country after a measles outbreak from 1989-1991 in which more than
50% of the children infected had not been vaccinated (“Vaccines for children,” 2014). Parents
have the resources available to get vaccinated and having the funds to do it is not an issue. With
the overwhelming amount of evidence that vaccines are in fact safe and healthy for children,
parents should be getting their children vaccinated.
Refutation
According to those who oppose vaccines, vaccinating your child can have serious side
effects. Some of these points were addressed previously, such as the argument that there are too

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many vaccines or that vaccines can cause a higher risk for asthma, but one of the biggest
arguments against vaccines in recent years is that vaccines can lead to autism. This belief started
due to Dr. Andrew Wakefield making a claim that the MMR vaccine could lead to autism. He
claimed that the three vaccines, if taken together, could alter a child’s immune system and
damage the brain. Shortly after he release his study, he was rejected by the medical community.
The British Medical Journal actually called his research a fraud. He was stripped of his license
and ended up in jail for some time (Haberman, 2015). If a doctor that was prominent in the
medical community was put in jail and stripped of his license for making that link between
autism and vaccines, it is clear that his research was flawed at the least.
Many others have also encouraged this link, such as former television host Jenny
McCarthy. She has spoken out many times linking her son’s autism to his vaccinations. She
claims he got vaccinated and then he was not okay. The problem with this argument that she
makes as well as the one Dr. Wakefield made is that it is actually a post hoc logical fallacy. A
post hoc fallacy is when people link two events together illogically by saying event one follows
event two, so event two must be the direct result of event one (Haberman, 2015). There are
children who have been vaccinated and later developed autism, but there is no sound evidence or
studies that have been done proving that the autism is linked to the vaccinations.
After Dr. Wakefield’s claim was made and rejected, many doctors, scientists, and
researchers began doing studies on the subject. A study done by DeStefano, Price, and
Weintraub (2013) has also stated that there is in fact no link between vaccines and autism. They
studied over 250 autistic children to determine whether the vaccinations they had received
throughout their lives had a direct link with their illness. They confirmed that there is no link, at
any age, from a child’s vaccinations to autism. In their discussion it says, “These results indicate

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that parental concerns that their children are receiving too many vaccines in the first 2 years of
life…are not supported in terms of an increased risk of autism” (p. 563). This is just one of many
studies done that further proves that there is not clear link between the two things. Many people
have their doubts about vaccines, but they are mostly due to the media and popular belief rather
than to facts, studies, and science.
Conclusion
This paper discussed the cost of treating disease compared to the cost of vaccinations,
how vaccines are both safe and healthy for children, and the vitality of vaccines to the
eradication of disease. Doctor-recommended vaccines should be required for children to aid
in the eradication of disease. Dr. Scott Goldstein, a pediatrician at Northwestern Children’s
Practice in Chicago said, “If parents have the right information, and they understand the
overwhelming evidence that supports vaccination, we feel they will come to understand why we,
as doctors, feel so strongly in favor of vaccination” (as cited in Vara, 2011).

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References
Capron, A. M. (2015). Personal beliefs exemption from mandatory immunization of children for
school entry. Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics, 12-21.
DeStefano, F., Price, C. S., Weintraub, E. S. (2013). Increasing exposure to antibody-stimulating
proteins and polysaccharides in vaccines is not associated with risk of autism. The
Journal of Pediatrics, 163, 561-567.
Haberman, C. (2015). A discredited vaccine study’s continuing impact on public health. The
New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/us/a-discredited-
vaccine-studys-continuing-impact-on-public-health.html?_r=0.
Haelle, T. (2015). Measles outbreak in dollars and cents: It costs taxpayers bigtime. Forbes.
Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2015/02/11/measles-outbreak-in-
dollars-and-cents-it-costs-taxpayers-bigtime/.
Herd immunity. (n.d.). The History of Vaccines. Retrieved on November 13, 2015 from
http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/herd-immunity-0.
Offit, P. A., Quarles, J., Gerber, M. A., Hacket, C. J., Marcuse, E. K., Kollman, T. R., Gellin, B.
G., Landry, S. (2002). Addressing parents’ concerns: Do multiple vaccines overwhelm or
weaken the infant’s immune system. Pediatrics, 109, 124-129.
Peidra, P. A., Gaglani, M. J., Riggs, M., Herschler, G., Fewlass, C., Watts, M. (2005). Live
attenuated influenza vaccine, trivalent, is safe in healthy children 18 months to 4 years, 5
to 9 years, and 10 to 18 years of age in a community-based, nonrandomized, open-label
trial. Pediatrics, 116, 745.
Vaccines and immunizations. (2014). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.. Retrieved
November 12, 2015 from http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/howvpd.htm.

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Vaccines for children program (VFC). (2014). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Retrieved on November 13, 2015 from
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vfc/index.html.
Vara, C. (2011). Doctors take a stand for immunizations. Shot of Prevention. Retrieved from
http://shotofprevention.com/2011/09/02/doctors-take-a-stand-for-immunizations/.