‘Frontline’ is a series that was aired in the television by PBS in the year 2010 and the episode aired is episode 16 of seaso

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‘Frontline’ is a series that was aired in the television by PBS in the year 2010 and the episode aired is episode 16 of season 28. The episode discusses an emerging phenomenon in the field of public health where the parents who are opposed to the vaccination of the children against some of the diseases such as the mumps, chicken pox and hepatitis B are brought to the debate. These parents claim that it is unnecessary for the children to be vaccinated for the otherwise diseases that could be cured through natural immunity by their children. The parents further claim that they question the need to vaccinate their children against some of the conditions that are transmitted through sex as they find it unnecessary and therefore they would prefer to keep their children unvaccinated. The whole episode revolves about the theme of vaccine safety and the war against vaccines with the opponents of vaccine administration to young children claiming it to be irrelevant.

The special title for the episode is ‘The Vaccine War’ and illustrates the controversial rise of the new generation of parents who are not sure about the possible risks of the vaccines that are administered to their children. Therefore due to their uncertainty, the parents have chosen to either discontinue the vaccine schedule or refrain from having their children vaccinated at all. One of the grave decision that is made by the parents around the country is opting out and distancing their children from vaccinations and most specifically for the Measles Mumps and Rubella shot. The decision to opt out sparkled the debate between the concerned parents and the medical field, which has only intensified with the evolving social media environment with the audience taking various sides of the discussion.

The main concern that rise in the episode include the matters of the vaccine’s safety on the public that result after the injection of harmful chemicals into the child’s body making the parents of the children withdraw their children from vaccination. In the beginning of the episode, a mother by the name Jennifer Margulis states that she saw it unnecessary for her newborn to be vaccinated against Hepatitis which is a sexually transmitted disease and she feels like the ingredients of the vaccine are too scary for the infant to take in to the body with the immature immune system. With most of the mothers withdrawing their children from the vaccination program, the biggest concern and worry arises due to the issues of massive disease outbreak of the diseases that could have been prevented through vaccination. Due to this, the center for disease control carefully watches the region that Ms. Margulis comes from, and that is Ashland as it is the least vaccinated region in America as most of the parents opt to exclude their children from the vaccination program for various reasons. With the region experiencing low vaccinations, the issue becomes a social problem because if one of the children not vaccinated goes into contact with a person who is infected with a contagious disease, the child will definitely get the disease and eventually spreading it to the other children to whom as well are not vaccinated. With a large number population of unvaccinated children, the spread of a disease can be very fast leading to an epidemic.

According to the film, various factors can be attributed to the decline in the vaccination rates within most of the regions in the film such as Ashland and California. One of the leading factors is that of personal belief especially in the region of California. With the belief that the vaccines are not effective to the children or the belief by the parents that the vaccine can be harmful to their children, they can easily withdraw from the vaccination program, and nothing is going to happen to them. Through these personal beliefs, it is difficult for the government vaccinates the children by force since the constitution of the United States guarantees the right of free will. Most of the people take advantage of their rights with mere beliefs that the vaccination is not worth but on the other hand doesn’t consider the health risks or the impending danger that may arise due to lack of immunization. From the film, we are made aware that Ashland is one of the regions that have low numbers of vaccinated children and this might as well be as a result of personal beliefs like in the case of Ms. Margulis. Again, most of the parent’s belief that the vaccines are associated with Autism and therefore in fear of such, they don’t vaccinate their children leading to a decline in the vaccination rates.

Another reason that can be attributed to the reduced immunization rates is the complexity of the immunization schedule. The children are exposed to so many vaccines at the young age, and this has become one of the biggest challenges in that the schedule is complicated providing challenges to both the parent and the healthcare provider in follow-ups of the schedules and therefore there are high chances of missing specific doses of the vaccines. Missing a dosage of the vaccines leads to a missed opportunity, and most of the parents do not follow up to make sure that their children are immunized. Another reason for the declined rate of vaccination is due to the adverse effects that are associated with some of the vaccines. Most of the parents are concerned about the welfare of their children and therefore would not risk to vaccine their children with the same vaccine that has resulted in adverse effects to other children. Therefore adverse effects have contributed again to the low rates of vaccination among the children in the present days.

Again, the belief that some of the diseases that are vaccinated in the currently being vaccinated such as smallpox and chicken pox were eradicated has contributed to the reduced rates of vaccination. The reason behind is because most of the parents see no need to vaccinate their children against a disease or condition that was eradicated a long time ago as there are no chances of the diseases striking again. With this in mind, most of the parents are of the idea that since the human body develops immunity after contracting a disease. Being infected with one of the eradicated diseases such as measles will result to build up of immunity from the child’s body kicking the illness out of their body and prevent any future attack of the same disease. The belief of the herd immunity, therefore, has played a significant role in the decrease in the vaccination rates in America.

As a result of the reduced vaccination rates, it becomes an issue of public health concern as the primary role of public health is to prevent the outbreak of diseases in a region. The public health, therefore, is mandated with the surveillance of cases especially in the regions that experience low rates of vaccination like California and Ashland. The main focus in these areas is because an epidemic may result and may affect a large number of people including the vaccinated children and this may lead to the emergence and re-emergence of conditions in the population as a result of poor behavior vaccination. Therefore, public health is kept on the toes to identify cases and as well prevent further outbreak of the condition in the targeted region.

There are concerns about the promotion of evidence-based health policies as well as encouraging critical thinking about health-related issues. Evidence-based policies include the education of the population about specific health problems and providing evidence such as video facts that show the symptoms of the diseases. Through this, the parents might reconsider the suffering that they might be causing to the loved children by preventing them from being vaccinated if they get infected with the said condition. To promote critical thinking, it would be essential to question the parent whether they were exempted from being vaccinated at their childhood and the answer would be most probably a no and therefore ask the reason as to why they want their children exempted from the same vaccination that they too had received at the same age.

Reference

The Vaccine War. 2017. Dirs. Jon Palfreman and Kate McMahon.Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/vaccines/