Introduction
Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent serious infectious diseases. These include tuberculosis, diphtheria, measles, tetanus, polio, hepatitis B, and others. Vaccines are one of humanity’s most influential and economically justified medical and social achievements (Rappuoli, Santoni and Mantovani, 2019). The purpose of vaccinations is to create conditions of immunity to infectious diseases by imitating them. Some vaccines already provide the body with permanent immunity from the first time. They are administered to healthy and sick people to prevent infectious or oncological diseases.
There has been much discussion about the feasibility of planned immunoprophylaxis. It confused parents as they did not know how to behave correctly. In many cases, they refuse to vaccinate their children (Bianco et al., 2019). It is hazardous because they are the most sensitive population group. There are many reasons to doubt the feasibility of vaccination (Sharun et al., 2021). Parents searching for necessary information often fall under the influence of incompetent media or unqualified doctors. Sometimes, having experienced a negative experience with the healthcare sector, parents refuse services in general due to mistrust. In any case, although everyone has the right to their own opinion, it is necessary to realize the level of responsibility in this case.
History of Vaccinations
Vaccination, that is, the artificial creation of immunity, arose spontaneously. It is believed that this happened for the first time in the form of variolation. This method of vaccination against smallpox spontaneously arose and spread throughout Asia and Africa and, at some point, was brought to Europe. It consisted of the fact that pus and scabs were taken from the skin of a smallpox patient and rubbed on a healthy person. People believed that a person would get sick after that but will get sick quickly and will not get sick in the future. It was true for about 90% of those vaccinated in this way (Spencer, 2022). However, others were seriously ill, and most of them died.
Moreover, variolation was often the cause of smallpox epidemics. Nevertheless, it was still an alternative that allowed people to look more confidently into the future. Only smallpox was concerned with variolation. No one even thought something like this could apply to anything else. In 1721, the British brought her from Turkey to their country. In Great Britain, King George I and his children were vaccinated.
In 1796, Edward Jenner took sick material not from human smallpox but from animal smallpox, hoping there would be cross-immunity. Of course, no one knew such words then. However, there were many observations: milkmaids do not get smallpox, and cavalrymen, who often come into contact with horsepox, do not get sick either (Spencer, 2022). Accordingly, Jenner did it more or less boldly, and, as it turned out, he was right.
Research on Vaccination
Negative attitudes towards vaccination are typical in every country of the world. The reasons for that are cases of health deterioration facilitated after vaccination or deliberate falsification of vaccine data (Paul, Steptoe and Fancourt, 2021). The invention accelerated the need for information about people’s willingness to be vaccinated and critical concerns in this area. The research focused primarily on the coverage of information about the population’s attitude to vaccination, arguments, and reasons that influenced it was analyzed.
The survey concerned parents in the USA and Canada and was conducted as a questionnaire. The question examined parents’ willingness to vaccinate their newborn children and the dependence of their attitude toward vaccination on its cost. Moreover, although the percentage of respondents ready for childhood vaccination differs, it is consistently high in both countries (Dyda et al., 2020). Another considered study was devoted to the peculiarities of the distribution of attitudes towards vaccinations. Data collected during the Covid-19 pandemic reflect how attitudes towards vaccination are formed, what influences the final decision and what role the social circle plays (Konstantinou et al., 2021). Thus, parents’ attitude to vaccination is formed under the influence of other individuals’ behavior and the social environment’s message.
Therefore, it was investigated that a positive attitude towards vaccination is most often a consequence of the same attitude of the family and friends of the interviewee. Healthcare workers and colleagues have less influence on vaccination attitudes. After all, according to the study, politicians play almost no role in shaping the interviewee’s attitude to vaccination (Konstantinou et al., 2021). Discussing childhood vaccination issues with family and friends shapes a person’s vision and attitude toward this topic. On the other hand, public health organizations do not have such an influence on the formation of attitudes among the population.
Vaccination Issues in Today’s World
Each vaccine goes through the stages of testing its safety and effectiveness. If the vaccine has not passed these stages, it cannot be considered effective and safe, and therefore it is not allowed to be used. Today, the issue of vaccination is considered through the lens of Covid-19, as it is the primary medical issue of the modern world. With the suddenness of its appearance, people began to doubt the feasibility of vaccines against this virus. The research was indeed carried out quickly, but the epidemiological situation in the world requires it. The immunity produced by the body after the vaccine’s introduction will be effective against different strains. (Rutten et al., 2021). All of the above points to the effectiveness and safety of vaccines, so parents should not worry about possible harm from vaccination. However, the consequences of non-vaccination can be fatal.
Parents’ fears about vaccinating their children against Covid-19 are understandable, although unwarranted. Indeed, no vaccine gives a hundred percent guarantee that a person will not get sick. What is essential is that the vaccine gives us a guarantee that a person will not die from this disease. By vaccinating their child, parents save not only him, but also those with whom he comes in contact. The risk of human health or life is not correlated with the issue of parental freedom. Nevertheless, vaccination is a matter of national security and social responsibility, so it is crucial to get vaccinated.
The problem may be that some well-known anti-vaccination doctors are associated with commercial laboratories that do the tests. It is profitable for such doctors that patients do not vaccinate and instead rush to pass an unnecessary and uninformative analysis for the presence of antibodies against covid instead of a free, state-guaranteed vaccine (Mical et al., 2021). In addition, there is an atmosphere of skepticism towards relatively new vaccines. Explaining to parents the principle of action of the vaccine and the peculiarities of the child’s transition to its administration can be effective.
Why Is Immunization Important?
Immunity protects the body from substances that carry signs of genetic alienness or altered ones. Immunity is a concept characteristic of the whole organism and cannot be applied to individual organs, tissues, or cells. Immunization consists of introducing a given antigen in a non-aggressive form but in immunogenic doses for the induction of a protective immune response and the formation of immune memory. Immunization provides active and passive biological resistance to certain infectious diseases.
The purpose of immunization is to protect the child from various infectious diseases, which are dangerous. In the case of immunization, the child is given a vaccine that contains harmless varieties of those microorganisms that provoke the emergence of dangerous diseases. The vaccine is too weak to cause infectious diseases. However, in response to its introduction, the body produces antibodies that will protect against a specific disease in the future, that is, immunity (Dinleyici et al., 2021). Immunization is carried out at specific age periods of the child’s life.
Artificial active immunization involves the creation of immunity through the administration of vaccines (a vaccine antigen is a weakened or killed pathogen or an artificially synthesized protein identical to the pathogen’s protein) or toxoid (a decontaminated bacterial toxin that retains its antigenic properties). In the case of infections with a long incubation period, such as rabies, active immunization makes it possible to prevent the disease even after infection (Dinleyici et al., 2021). Active immunization contributes to the formation of specific temporary or permanent immunity depending on the type of antigen.
Sometimes vaccination causes complications, and if detected, it is necessary to seek medical help. Post-vaccination complications are unwanted pathological processes developed after and most likely due to immunization. They are characterized by severe or persistent health disorders and require serious therapeutic interventions. In all developing countries, regular vaccination against measles, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, and tuberculosis is carried out.
The Anti-Vaccination Movement
Immunoprophylaxis is the only reliable protection against many diseases today. However, at the same time, several factors are preventing its implementation. One is the powerful anti-vaccination movement, which is gaining strength yearly (Johnson et al., 2020). Moreover, this cannot but cause concern among medical professionals, who face unjustified refusal to vaccinate patients and their parents due to the influence of ideas spread by the organizers of these movements. Anti-vaccine propaganda includes disseminating unverified and false information, ignoring the data of medical and scientific literature, and making false and incorrect statements due to ignorance of the principles of evidence-based medicine or a conscious unwillingness to follow them.
The high-quality implementation of immunoprophylaxis of infectious diseases depends on many factors. The first one is state control in providing medical services. However, to resist the anti-vaccination movement, it is no less critical to improving the qualifications of doctors who administer vaccinations annually. At the same time, professional knowledge and skills in their application are essential, as the ability to work in the psychological preparation of patients and their parents for vaccination. Thus, public awareness of vaccination is a vital step in successful immunoprophylaxis.
Arguments For and Against Childhood Vaccination
Children are at greater risk of disease because their immune systems are less mature and less able to fight infection. Vaccination is a way to protect babies, children, and teenagers from potentially dangerous diseases that can require hospitalization or even be fatal. However, there is still much controversy surrounding vaccination between its supporters and opponents. Any vaccine is a complex pharmacological preparation containing protein components to which the body responds by producing antibodies – immune complexes that protect the body from a specific disease.
Some vaccines are administered once because they form persistent immunity. The effect of others decreases later, which is why revaccination is necessary – re-introducing the same vaccine after a while that corresponds to the vaccination schedule. On the Internet, one can find many materials on the topic that a child should not be vaccinated before the age of one, as this is a massive blow to his body. However, unfortunately, such diseases as hepatitis B, tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, and some other infectious diseases threaten children from the moment of birth.
If an unvaccinated child is exposed to a disease germ, his body may not be strong enough to fight it. Before vaccination, many children died from whooping cough, measles, and polio. The same germs still exist today, but because vaccines protect babies, these diseases are less common (Gidengil et al., 2019). Vaccinating children also helps protect the health of others, especially those who cannot be vaccinated, as well as the small proportion of people who do not respond to a specific vaccine. All vaccines go through a long and thorough review by scientists, doctors, and health professionals to ensure they are safe.
Speaking about the arguments against vaccinations, it is worth noting that they are not scientifically proven. Despite this, some people believe that most diseases vaccinated against are not life-threatening under the current state of medicine. Others are convinced that vaccines contain compounds harmful to the body and that the storage and transportation conditions of vaccines do not always meet the requirements. Quite often, complications after vaccination frighten parents more than the possibility of contracting a disease.
In general, parents’ fears are understandable since adequate parents always wish their children only the best. Vaccinations may lead to negative or even fatal consequences during their history. It is worth remembering that such cases are exceptions to the rules since the vaccine is designed to protect. The main thing is to check the doctor’s qualifications and ask for documentary confirmation of the vaccine’s storage conditions and license. In addition, doctors are obliged to familiarize themselves with the action and side effects of the vaccine, and to open the packaging only in the presence of parents, showing the expiration date.
Conclusion
Immunization has been proven to save millions of lives. Vaccination is widely recognized as one of the most effective and cost-effective means of health care. However, there are many unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children in the world who are at risk of contracting potentially fatal diseases. Vaccines against disease-causing microorganisms can prime the body’s immune system to help fight or prevent infection. Although population immunization is reasonably safe and necessary, adverse reactions are still possible.
The analyzed studies show that most people have a positive attitude toward vaccinating their children. The views of the family and friends of the interviewees have the most significant influence on their attitude to vaccination. Today, the main topic in the field of health care is Covid-19. Parents are often afraid to vaccinate their children due to insufficient awareness of the principle of the vaccine or the influence of representatives of the anti-vaccine movement.
In conclusion, vaccination of children should be mandatory, as it is not only about the child’s health but also those around him. A child’s body needs special protection, and vaccination can provide it. Parents should be responsible for this issue, consult with doctors and check the suitability of the vaccine.
Reference List
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