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Cameron Cox
Professor Holloway
English 2010
August 8th, 2016

How Vaccines Are Eradicating Disease

Millions of lives have been saved due to disease being under more control, through
medical breakthroughs such as vaccines. Are vaccines really the best way to eliminate disease?
In todays world, there has to be an effective to eliminate the microscopic organisms in which we
are at war with. In history we have seen many different kinds of disease cause death among
countless individuals that were not adapted or equipped in arms against such threatening
diseases.
Science has shown these lives can be prevented by vaccination. Nearly half of the lives
lost in leading causes of death are said to be preventable (CDC, 2014). But how? The other more
obvious question, is how have we prevented such aggressive disease in the past? To understand
this kind of science, we must learn about what vaccines have attributed in the past when it comes
to eradicating disease. I will discuss some history of Smallpox, whether or not vaccines are
important to continue the fight against disease, what the risks of vaccinations are, and talk about
how people going to eradicate disease going forward.

How Smallpox was defeated

There was a time where the disease Smallpox was a huge threat to humanity. For decades
now it has eliminated, with no signs of returning. The last known case we are sure of thus far
with the last known case occurring in Somalia, Africa in the year of 1977, nearly 39 years ago
(The History of Vaccines, 2016). At one point it was killing a high number of people in a very

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rapid amount of time. Some make the argument that this could have been prevented without
vaccinations.
One of the arguments made is that our immune system can be strong, and adapt to fight
off such disease. People have overcome many obstacles through adaption and evolution, why
would we need to stop now? Well, one thing is a fact, without the organization WHO (World
Health Organization), we may have not won the battle of Smallpox so quickly. With the help of
WHO, as well as all of the people that understood vaccinations were the way to fight the disease
much quicker, they completely eliminated Smallpox.
Smallpox was one of the most terrifying diseases spread from human to human. We no
longer have to worry about this disease thanks to Vaccinations. (The History of Vaccines, 2016)
The next diseases known to be preventable in the same way as Smallpox are still being fought
and controlled the same way we got rid of Smallpox. With all of the ways we know to prevent
and completely save the lives of so many people, the history and fight against Smallpox seems to
be very promising moving forward in the fight against other disease, compared to any other
known form. However, because of herd immunity the only way for the disease to completely
stop spreading is by the majority of people agreeing to vaccinations being the best way of
eliminating disease.

Herd Immunity
One of the most important issues that drive those who are trying to progress vaccinations,
is whether or not individuals should have their freedom to choose to be vaccinated. Does it
actually pose a threat if everyone is vaccinated compared to that of disease? Some have concerns
or reasons as to not be vaccinated. One theory is that high paying pharmaceutical companies are

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not to be trusted due to the amount of money profits from vaccinations, poisons in vaccinations,
or not being able to reverse a vaccination (The Healthy Home Economist). Although these are
convincing reasons to look into opposing vaccinations, they dont quite outweigh the realities of
how vaccinations are preventing and controlling disease today. Herd Immunity is a solid science,
with more supporting articles and facts than any proof against it. It has been used to understand
how a wide group of individuals that are vaccinated can help surround those who are not
vaccinated, and eventually stop the spreading of the disease. Once a majority are vaccinated, the
disease will have anywhere to spread within a group of vaccinated individuals. See the image
below from Vaccines.gov:

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As it shows, we can contain a disease with some individuals not being vaccinated. However,
unless everyone is healthy or vaccinated the disease still has a chance in spreading. Even in
healthy individuals, the chance is still there to obtain a disease, if they were never vaccinated, or
not surrounded by those who were. (vaccines.gov)

Benefits of Eradicating and Eliminating Disease

Once a disease has been eradicated, it is under a type of control that has a very rare and
high chance of coming back. The reason for this, is that a pathogen cannot be spread from person
to person unless it is reintroduced to a human through other means. The other more obvious
issue, is that the disease can spread from a non-vaccinated person to another non-vaccinated
person, and will continue to spread to the non-vaccinated people including infants who were not
vaccinated. This will continue until the non-vaccinated people that can still spread the disease are
either vaccinated protected by other have been (WHO). As we have seen with Smallpox, the
odds of an eliminated disease coming back are extremely slim. From monitoring many people
including newborn children for long periods of time, we have been able to see through science
and data that the long term effects of vaccinations are more beneficial than any alternate we have
on the war against disease. (CDC) Although it is possible for children to have a full blown
immune response after the disease is introduced through vaccination, the odds are very low.
There is also vigorous testing for those individuals who cannot get vaccinated because of severe
allergies or autoimmune deficiencies. With that being said, just like anything else that is for the
overall benefit of humanity, there will still be that slight risk of someone getting a side effect.

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This does not mean we should end saving countless millions of people due to those very rare
cases.
When viewing statistics of how any disease dramatically went down since vaccinations
were introduced, it is rather plain evidence how much vaccines have helped. Measles is a great
example of how vaccinations have helped it become under more control than without
vaccinations. It isnt hard to believe that if everyone was vaccinated, measles could be
completely eliminated too. (Vaccine Knowledge Project)

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(CDC) With all of the research and data across the board, we can see there is more of a
consensus for vaccinations being the best weapon against the war on disease. As we come closer
to containing and eliminating disease, it will be crucial that everyone be educated to solving the
problem together and coming to an agreement on vaccinations.
We have come so far in such a short period of time in the life of humanity and it is best to
be optimistic that with vaccinations, we can completely remove life threatening microorganisms
out of our lives to be able to live longer as a species and keep our children and their children's
children safe as well. We do not want to go back to times where disease has taken over and
caused the death of far too many compared to the rare causes of death from vaccinations. I have
hopes that preventable disease will eventually be eliminated through science, logic, and the
willingness for people to agree on the best possible solution of vaccinations.
I will conclude with an image below of the potential eradicable diseases going forward with the
use of vaccinations, and allow for looking at the bigger pictures of saving the future of our
species, and win the war against microorganisms. (CDC)

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Works Cited

Abraham, Anju. "Vaccine Myths Debunked. "PublicHealth.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 07 July 2016.
<http://www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/understanding-vaccines/vaccine-mythsdebunked/>.
CDC. "Parents' Guide to Childhood Immunizations." Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 26 Oct. 2015. Web. 07 July 2016.
<http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/tools/parents-guide/parents-guide-part4.html>.
FE Andre a, R Booy b, HL Bock c, J Clemens d, SK Datta c, TJ John e, BW Lee f, S Lolekha g,
H Peltola h, TA Ruff i, M Santosham j, HJ Schmitt
"Vaccination Greatly Reduces Disease, Disability, Death and Inequity
Worldwide." WHO. N.p., 2008. Web. 07 July 2016.
<http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/2/07-040089/en/>.
NIAID. "Community Immunity ("Herd Immunity")." Vaccines.gov. N.p., 23 June 2016. Web. 07
July 2016. <http://www.vaccines.gov/basics/protection/>.
Sarah. "Six Reasons To Say NO to Vaccination. The Healthy Home Economist. N.p., May
2014. Web. 07 July 2016.
<http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/six-reasons-to-say-no-to-vaccination/>.
Sarah. "Measles." Vaccine Knowledge. N.p., 04 July 2016. Web.
11 July 2016. <http://vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/measles>.

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