I think every kid should get vaccines for a few different reasons. Some children receive vaccines and some others do not. People believe different things about vaccines, some of which are not true. I think all children should receive vaccines because it can protect future generations, the vaccines can save more lives, and they are effective. 

     If every child received vaccines, it could protect future generations. The purpose of the vaccines is to protect people from diseases and illnesses. If every child received vaccines, not as many people would get the illness or they may even clear the virus. The future generations of people will then not have as many illnesses and the world will be safer. For example, even some females who are pregnant protect their child from birth defects by being vaccinated while others who are not vaccinated could cause birth defects to their child(ren). If those females get vaccinated there will be less children with birth defects and health problems. Furthermore, “women who were vaccinated as children against rubella have greatly decreased the chance of passing the virus to their unborn or newborn children, eliminating the birth defects, such as heart problems, hearing and vision loss, congenital cataracts, liver and spleen damage, and mental disabilities, associated with the disease.” In addition, Vaccines save about 2.5 million children’s lives a year. “The American Academy of Pediatrics states that ‘most childhood vaccines are 90%-99% effective in preventing disease.’” “...United Nations Foundation partner organization, vaccines save 2.5 million children from preventable diseases every year, which equates to roughly 285 children saved every hour.” If you think about it, every hour, more than the amount of one grade of children are saved at a time since they were vaccinated. “The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that childhood immunization prevented about 419 million illnesses, 26.8 million hospitalizations, and 936,000 early deaths of children born between 1994 and 2018.” The vaccines prevent these diseases which could otherwise kill children. For example, “The measles vaccine has decreased childhood deaths from measles by 74%.” This evidence shows that because of vaccines, virus cases and deaths have gone. This will protect future generations since the children will be less vulnerable to the virus. 

     Many people who are vaccinated are not only safe from whatever the virus may be but also may help clear it. For example, children no longer need to receive the vaccine for polio and smallpox because the virus was cleared. “The last case of smallpox in the United States was in 1948; the last case in the world was 1977 in Somalia.In the twentieth century, there were 16,316 deaths from polio and 29,004 deaths from smallpox yearly in the United States; in 2012 there were no reported cases of polio or smallpox.” Even though some viruses were cleared, not all were but most have a decrease in the reported number of cases. “According to UNICEF, there were 500 cases of polio in 2014 worldwide (appearing only in three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan), down from 350,000 cases in 1988, thanks to vaccination programs.” Most of these viruses killed many people before they were cleared/ decreased in numbers. “Diphtheria killed 21,053 people yearly, measles killed 530,217 people yearly, mumps killed 162,344 people yearly, rubella killed 47,745 people yearly, and Hib killed 20,000 people yearly in the twentieth century United States; by 2012 each of these diseases were decreased by 99% because of vaccinations.”  Vaccines helped to get rid of these viruses’. All of those viruses decreased by almost 100% and are completely gone.

     Many people receive vaccines when they are younger because many of the illnesses affect younger children. Some children who do not receive vaccines can get very sick or even die. Some people hear about children or people having side effects or getting sick. While that is true, ultimately the vaccine will not kill you like some of the virus’ will. People would much rather feel sick for a little and be safe from that specific virus rather than die because of something that has already killed some other people. In addition, many people say they do not want vaccines since some of them have harmful things in them. Although that is true, those harmful things are only considered harmful if they are taken in large doses. The vaccines are not large doses but rather just what is needed to protect the child/person. For example, aluminum is used in some vaccines. Although it is true that aluminum is not good for a human and can cause neurological problems, children are exposed to more aluminum in breast milk and infant formula than they are in a vaccine. 

     Overall, I believe every child should receive vaccines in Delaware. If every child receives vaccines, it could help protect future generations, and vaccines save children’s lives and since they save their lives, they are effective. 

Please follow this link to my petition:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScvJp4weCWLdw3ATE7v8Iuckrxb6NTbYypo-3-tvBjQSSbv4Q/viewform?usp=sf_link