The Benefits of Vaccination Outweigh the Risks

Megan Shea

"The Benefits of Vaccination Outweigh the Risks." Vaccines, edited by Noël Merino, Greenhaven Press, 2015. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, libproxy.luzerne.edu:2048/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010938204/OVIC?u=nant9483&xid=341e88d9. Accessed 6 Feb. 2017. Originally published as "General Vaccine Safety Concerns," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], Apr. 2013./

“The Benefits of Vaccination Outweigh the Risks” tells readers about different types of vaccines and how some of their “harmful” side effects are worth the shot. The author of the article goes on to give examples about four vaccines, who they were tested on, how many people had complications, what the complications were, and the outcome of the vaccination.

In second sentence of the article the writer stands on one side of the fence by saying, “Although no vaccine is completely harmless, vaccines do protect people from the real danger of disease.” By using this statement the writer tells the reader that he is for vaccines rather than opposes them. After this statement the author goes on to describe words like “safe” and “harmless” as to give the general population of readers a better understanding of the use of those words in the article. He uses the word “harmless” to describe every day activities like taking a bath or eating food because normally when someone bathes themselves or eats a delicious snack they are not thinking about what possible serious injury that could occur. They usually are not thinking anything negative at the time so when the reader states that 350 people are involved in bath or shower related accident that lead to death along with another 200 having food lodged in their windpipes and killed, the reader correlates the word “harmless” with everyday activities and has a new heightened sense of the word pertaining to vaccines. The writer goes on in the article within each vaccine and adds that getting the vaccine “clearly and definitively outweigh its risks.” By using “clearly and definitively outweigh its risks,” depending on the context it could be easy to misconstrue what the author is trying to tell the reader. For example, in the article when talking about Hepatitis B the author tells us that “Because the benefits of the hepatitis B vaccine clearly and definitively outweigh its risks, the hepatitis B vaccine is safe,” because no one, according to him, has ever died from the vaccination. Unfortunately, our author does not give proof that this is true, therefor he is leading the reader to believe this must be true. At the end of the article the author does begin to give information that provides further research for the reader upon their own personal leisure such as VSD and VAERS. These two organizations for example provide further research and investigation into vaccines for the general public to obtain on their own. There is however no real solution of how to proceed with further vaccinations but to do more research. The general public can only do research on their own and decide whether or not to get vaccinated or have their children vaccinated. The writer gives the two organizations above for more study material but does not tell the reader how or where to go for vaccinations or even who gives them such as a family doctor, general clinics, or even pharmaceutical companies. The only resolution given is more companies to delve into for more information about vaccines that already exist today and that it is important and that the “benefits outweigh the risks” of vaccinations.