Change Your World Week Winter 2022 (Archived)

The problem with vaccinations is that it will be an ongoing research and talked most about topic. The question is, would you want to protect your baby against diseases and other children in the world? Everyone wants their child to be safe and protected.  These diseases aren’t going away and to help stop the spread children need to be vaccinated to help protect themselves, people around them and the environment. To protect children from diseases, that are in the world we live in, is to get vaccinated. From birth to the age of eighteen the CDC offers vaccines to protect people. With getting your child vaccinated you are helping to stop the spread of diseases, not only to other children but to protect you and other people. Vaccines can prevent infectious diseases that once killed or harmed many infants, children and adults. Without vaccines, your child is at risk for getting seriously ill and suffering pain, disability and even death from diseases like measles and whooping cough. Measles in the Unites States had more than 1,200 cases in 2019. This was the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1992 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000 (cdc.gov). The more children that get vaccine will help save lives and the spread of diseases. Vaccines will help strengthen your baby’s immune system by recognizing the disease and fighting it off. When your baby is born, their immune system isn’t fully developed and they can be at risk for infections. By getting your child vaccinated it can reduce the risk of infection by working with their body’s natural defense to help safely develop immunity to the diseases. Vaccines prevent an estimated 2.5 million deaths among children younger than the age 5 every year. Still, one child dies every 20 seconds from a disease that could have been prevented by a vaccine. Did you know that 1 in 5 children worldwide don’t have access to the life-saving immunizations that keep children healthy (cdc.gov)? Diereses travel as easily as people and products do. There are scientists from CDC work in many countries using proven strategies to end these diseases that are spreading. People believe there are many side effects to vaccines. Well there are side effects to every medication that is made. Most side effects from vaccinations are mild, such as soreness, swelling, or redness at the injection site. Some vaccines are associated with fever, rash, and achiness. Serious side effects are rare, but may include seizure or life-threatening allergic reaction (historyofvaccines.org). Pneumonia is the one most common infectious causing death among children under the age of 5, killing approximately 800,000 children a year. In many parts of the world, a child dies from pneumonia every 39 seconds. Even though this disease is entirely preventable and can be easily managed with antibiotics (childhooddiseases.org). Prevent the spread by getting vaccinated early. There are different side effects to different vaccines along with different effects on different people. Not everyone is the same and some people have a higher immunity than others. Vaccines have come along way over the years. Some people just don’t agree with vaccines because they believe that that can cause autism in children.   

People believe vaccines cause autism. Studies has shown that there is no link between receiving vaccines and developing ASD. A CDC study published in 2013 added to the research showing that vaccines do not cause ASD. The study focused on the number of antigens given during the first two years of life. Antigens are substances in vaccines that cause the body’s immune system to produce disease-fighting antibodies. The results showed that the total amount of antigen from vaccines received was the same between children with ASD and those that did not have ASD (cdc.gov). In 1995, a group of British researchers published a cohort study in the Lancet showing that individuals who had been vaccinated with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR) were more likely to have bowel disease than individuals who had not received MMR. One researcher was Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a gastroenterologist, from Britain, who further studied possible link between the vaccine and bowel disease by speculating that persistent infection with vaccines virus causing intestinal tissue to lead to bowel disease and neuropsychiatric disease, specifically autism. In 1998, Wakefield, along with 12 co-authors, published a case series study in the Lancet claiming that they found evidence in 12 cases they studied that measles virus in the digestive system of children who had exhibited autism symptoms after MMR vaccine. In the paper they couldn’t demonstrate a causal relationship between MMR vaccine and autism. In his video release he stated, “The risk of this particular syndrome developing is related to the combined vaccine, the MMR, rather than the single-antigen vaccines given separately over time.” (historyofvaccines.org) When the press got a hold of this news it went worldwide and there were many frightened parents delaying or refusing vaccines for their children. Over the next twelve years there were more studies and no evidence or findings were found to link between MMR vaccine, bowel disease or autism. In 2004, Dr. Richard Horton the editor of the Lancet found out that Wakefield had been paid by attorneys seeking to file a lawsuit against vaccine manufactures. Wakefield falsely made the report and evidence was that the data was research fraud. Most researchers say that causes of autism include genetics and environmental factors, but don’t involve vaccines. Wakefield was the doctor that fooled the world about war on vaccines.  

There are current actions on the immunizations for children. Researchers, being safe and protection. There are different immunizations for children at different ages from birth to 18 years of age. At birth babies need their first dose out of three of Hep B vaccine. Hepatitis B is a serious disease causes by a virus that attacks the liver. If a baby or child gets Hep B it can cause lifelong infection, scarring of the liver, liver cancer, liver failure or even death. In a couple months they should receive RV, DTaP, Hib, PCV13 and IPV. Rotavirus vaccine is also give in three different doses at different ages. This disease is highly contagious. This disease is present in the stool and can remain on contaminated surfaces. Children can catch this by touching something that’s contaminated and then outing their hands in their mouth. Diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis are serious bacterial diseases. Diphtheria can lead to breathing problems, paralysis, heart failure and even death. Tetanus is also known as lockjaw. This is serious and painful tightening of the muscles in the body. It can also prevent you from opening your mouth or swelling. Pertussis also known as whooping cough and it is highly contagious in the respiratory tract. Haemophilus influenza type b is an invasive bacterial infection that causes bacterial meningitis in young children. Meningitis is an infection of the membrane that livers the brain and spinal cord. It can also cause brain damage, blindness, paralysis or even death. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine helps against bacterial caused by pneumonia. Inactivated polio vaccine includes four doses over time, and this is a crippling and potentially deadly disease and can spread from person to person and infected the brain and spinal cord causing paralysis. Varicella requires two doses. Chickenpox is highly contagious disease caused by varicella zoster virus. Rash would appear on chest, back, face or the entire body. Hep A is hepatitis A that is serious and cause liver disease. It can spread through close contact and be contaminated with objects, food or drinks. You can become fatigue and even get jaundice. It is very important that you get your babies checkups or well visits in a timely manner. Immunization programs of the 20^th and 21^st century have been so successful, many parents today never seen the many vaccine-preventable diseases that were once common (fda.gov). Some parents are against vaccines because of their religious beliefs, their person beliefs or even safety concerns.

The CDC estimated that vaccinating your child born between 1994 and 2018 will prevent about 419 million illnesses, avoid 936,000 deaths and save nearly $1.9 trillion in total societal costs (cdc.com). There is a program called Vaccines for Children (VFC) and it helps to provide vaccines to children whose parents can’t afford them. There are 16 diseases that vaccines can help protect children. Around 1989-1991, there was an epidemic in the United States with a disease called measles and there were tens of thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths. When the CDC investigated this incident, they discovered more than half of the children who was infected with measles hadn’t been immunized. On August 10, 1993, congress passed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) creating the VFC program. It became operational October 1, 1994. This program was for eligible for children from the age of 18 and younger.

If parents choose not to vaccinate their children, then need to understand the risks. Parents need to know that some risks are that their child can suffer pain, become seriously ill, become disable or even death from the diseases like measles and whooping cough. If you choose not to vaccinate your child, you need to watch for signs that the diseases cause. Some parents don’t believe in vaccinating their children because of their religion. Some Christian parents have opted out of the MMR vaccine because their concern was it was derived from cells originally obtained from elective abortion in 1960s. Catholics have been avoiding the chickenpox vaccine for the same reason (vox.com).

Some parents don’t believe in immunizations for purposes of religious reasons, personal beliefs and safety concerns. Vaccines are required for attending public schools. Today there are three categories that fall into vaccine exemptions and they are medical, philosophical and religious exemptions. Medical exemptions include severe allergies to the vaccine or components and immune system disorders. Philosophical exemptions are called personal beliefs like causing autism. Religious exemptions are based on the tenets of an organized religion that prohibits vaccinating its members. Some churches rely on faith healing including small Christian churches such as Church of the First Born, End Time Ministries, Faith Assembly, Faith Tabernacle and First Century Gospel Church (verywellfamily.com). Some parents might be concerned about putting chemicals in their children’s bodies. Some parents believe that getting your child immunized will make them autistic.

I believe that every child needs to get vaccinated to save a child’s life, to protect others, can save family’s time and money. There wouldn’t be a high breakout in disease if people where immunized. Herd immunity happens when a large portion of a community becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of the disease from person to person unlikely. Then when there is a breakout, it won’t be that bad and stay around for long. Vaccines can prevent contagious diseases that once killed or harmed many infants, children and adults. Even when traveling and having your child vaccinated will help keep them healthy and others around.   

The first vaccine was created by Edward Jenner in 1796, which he implanted a virus called cowpox into a 13 year old male and he displayed immunity to smallpox. Then the first vaccine was developed in 1789. In 1979, it went global. A disease can cause a lot of harm to people’s immune system and when that happens there is a toxic substance called antigen. This is the body trying to fight off the infection. When you get vaccinated it reduces or eliminates the microbe itself. B-lymphocytes are a type of white blood cells and develop from stem cells in the bone marrow and recognize soluble antigens. T-lymphocytes also known ae the T-helper cells are part of the immune system and developed from stem cells in bone marrow (pubmed.gov). They protect the body form infection and are blood cell development. There can be an allergy to a vaccine. If a woman is pregnant she should not be given a live vaccine because it can cause damage to the fetus. Don’t give a child any vaccines if they have a fever because it will be hard to pinpoint if it’s a reaction to the vaccine or the fever is due to something else that the child is fighting through. There are side effects after injecting the vaccine and those may include fever, fatigue, swelling or redness at the injection site and myalgia. There is a very rare side effect and that is Guillian-Barre Syndrome, and could be life threating if it attacks the nervous system.

In the school system they require for children to be vaccinated. In Maryland there was a threat against parents who wouldn’t vaccinate their children to attend school and was put into legal action. They would face up to $50.00 a day and up to 10 days in jail. There were 131,000 that weren’t vaccinated for chicken pox and Hep B. It was mandatory by the State’s Attorney Gleen F. Ivery. “I am willing to move forward with legal action.” The school reached out to the parents by making phone calls, sending letters and making home visits to make arrangements for free appointments to get these injections that are needed. Some children had one dose of the vaccine but failed to get the booster that was needed to complete the series. There was a second round of letters mailed that’s stated, “Meet at the Prince George’s Circuit Court for hearing and free vaccine, unexcused absences by your child may subject you to a criminal charge.” There were 1,700 children that showed up with their parents for the hearing. The children that showed up received their vaccine in the courtroom and the ones that unattended were going to get fined and go to jail. “The goal is to get the kids in schools, not to put parents in jail,” Ivery said. There are three exemptions for children not to get the vaccine for chicken pox and Hep B and they are medical, religious and personal belief. If a child has a medical issue they need to prove medical signed and documentation by a physician stating by getting these vaccines would be harmful to the child. A child could be allergic to the component in the vaccine or have a weakened immune system. For religious reasons the law is different in each state. Written proof needs to be present regrading a particular religion and why they are against the vaccines that help save lives. There were two states in 2007 that didn’t accept the religious exemption and they are Mississippi and West Virginia (thewashingtonpost).

 In October 2013 in Syria there was an outbreak of polio cases for the first time since 1999. Vaccines rates were down to 45% in 2013 from 95% in 2010.  Since the outbreak there were 36 cases that have been reported with unvaccinated children under the age of 2. There were a third of hospitals that were closed in Syria and as many as 70% of health care workers fled the country. In South Sudan, Africa the jurisdiction launched an emergency fight to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children against the virus by the end of that week. The polio disease kept spreading to different countries and they couldn’t stop it. Polio spread through contaminated water and food. In October 2013 in Pakistan, there were two health care workers that were killed along with 13 injured, from a bombing that Taliban controlled. Taliban had a ban on polio immunizations in June of 2012. There were reports that the CIA used fake vaccination programs to collect DNA samples from people in Osama bin Laden’s compound (CNN).   

Did you know that vaccines can help limit the spread of antibiotic resistant? Making better use of existing vaccines and developing new ones are the keyways to tackle antibiotic resistance and lower preventable illness and deaths (who.int). If a child received a vaccine that protected them from Streptococcus pneumoniae, which causes pneumonia and meningitis, the estimated days it would help from antibiotic use each year would be 11 million. Developing new vaccines can further reduce the development of resistance. The scientists would priorities which new vaccines would have the greatest impact on antibiotic resistance and then invest in those.

There are pro and cons about vaccines. It is better if you get your child vaccinated to help them and others. In the long run it will help your children’s immunity and protect them from the diseases. The con is there are side effects with every vaccine, but there are side effects to everything like vaccines and medications. Help protect you and your loved ones from getting sick and spreading diseases worldwide. Schools are not in the wrong for mandating children to get vaccinated before they can attend schools. If you have a religious belief, you should home school your children, so they won’t get sick and pass on the diseases. 

I encourage parents to do research and ask questions about vaccines when they take their child to a well visit with a physician. The more information you know they more knowable you will be. You will feel better when your child is vaccinated because you are protecting them and others. The spread will decrease, and their immune system will be immune to the diseases that are spreading worldwide. The action plan would be to get the majority child vaccinated before they start school to decrease the spread of disease and help keep our children and parents safe.

Predictions are to improve health benefits and from old and new vaccines and cost. The characteristics of a vaccine may affect its efficacy and the development process determines the cost associated with producing health benefits and the time which they would be achieved. Institute of medicine, Prevention on vaccine development attempted to foresee events from 1985 until the time at which vaccines licensure might occur (ncbi). We can boycott vaccine mandates for children and have a petition signed mandating vaccines for children and why they are important. When we have 100 registered voters then we will proceed onto making it a law. We can offer free vaccine clinic and give the parents as much information on why they are needed and safe by passing out flyers and brochures.  

Here are two links to educate you on what vaccines need to be giving to your child (0-6 years of age and 7-18 years of age).

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/downloads/parent-ver-sch-0-6yrs.pdf

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/downloads/teen/parent-version-schedule-7-18yrs.pdf

Here is the link to sign the petition for Mandate Vaccines for Children. I hope you take the time out to read why it's so important to get your children vaccinated and sign the petition. https://chng.it/pDyB2j7d   

Baby Checkups Count. (n.d.). Retrieved February 27, 2022, from https://www.babycheckupscount.com/check-ups-by-age/birth

Belluz, J. (2019, June 19). Religion and vaccine refusal are linked. we have to talk about it. Vox. Retrieved February 28, 2022, from https://www.vox.com/2019/6/19/18681930/religion-vaccine-refusal

CarolHand. Vaccines. Minneapolis, MN: Essential Library, 2014. ISBN 9781617839054. Disponível em: https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.delta.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e860xna&AN=609191&site=eds-live&scope=site. Acesso em: 27 fev. 2022.

Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. (n.d.). Vaccines for children - a guide for parents and caregivers. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Retrieved February 27, 2022, from https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/consumers-biologics/vaccines-children-guide-parents-and-caregivers

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014, February 13). CDC Global Health - Global Health Security - Immunization. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved February 27, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/security/immunization.htm

Childhood diseases. UNICEF. (2020, November 12). Retrieved March 27, 2022, from https://www.unicef.org/health/childhood-diseases

Ginglen, J. G. (2022, February 10). Immunization. StatPearls [Internet]. Retrieved February 27, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK459331/

Hernandez, N. (2007). Get kids vaccinated or else, parents told. The Washington Post, B01.

Kaufman J;Synnot A;Ryan R;Hill S;Horey D;Willis N;Lin V;Robinson P; (n.d.). Face to face interventions for informing or educating parents about early childhood vaccination. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. Retrieved February 27, 2022, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23728698/

Vaccine side effects and adverse events. History of Vaccines. (n.d.). Retrieved February 27, 2022, from https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/vaccine-side-effects-and-adverse-events

Vincent Iannelli, MD. “Religious Exemptions to Vaccines and Outbreaks in Communities.” Verywell Family, https://www.verywellfamily.com/religious-exemptions-to-vaccines-2633702.

World Health Organization. (n.d.). Antibiotic resistance: Why vaccination is important. World Health Organization. Retrieved February 27, 2022, from https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/antibiotic-resistance-why-vaccination-is-important