On balance, children should be vaccinated.

First, thank you to Malthelate for joining me in this discussion. To my opponent, please pause to reflect on the Rules and Structure enumerated in Round 1. Thank you. Since R1 was “acceptance” I will not rebut Con’s informal arguments except to say that moving forward please provide evidence/citations for claims like “it gives autism”. I promise to do the same and I will formally rebut the “autism” claim in round 2. Constructive Cases: (1) Vaccination has greatly reduced the burden of infectious disease in other countries [1]. (a) It seems like every time we talk about vaccinations we refer back to our own country. Well, it turns out, that the whole world has seen success in this arena. Each year, immunization averts 2-3 million deaths from diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough) and measles. In 2011, 123 countries immunized over 90% of infants against measles. Between 2000 and 2011, vaccination resulted in a 71% drop in measles deaths worldwide” [2]. UNICEF, the WHO and the UN all confirm that even in destitute countries we see declines in mortality. Yet, Americans continue to refer only to data FROM the U.S. [This is especially useful because vaccine opponents often cite declines in mortality (death) rates within the US prior to the introduction of vaccines using a misleading graph that does not include morbidities (prevalence)] - for reference alone. Not an argument [3]. (b) This graph paints a nice picture in terms we can understand about the clear decline of death rates from Measles across the globe. Please note that many of these countries do not have the medical care/economic means that vaccine opponents so often claim as proof that vaccines were/are unnecessary in the U.S. CEE: Central EuropeanSource: UNICEF, 2010 (2) Vaccine-preventable diseases haven’t gone away. (a) It’s easy to forget that these diseases still exist. Most of us haven’t seen what happens to a child with Polio or a baby with Whooping Cough (WC) and so it just doesn’t resonate with us. When considering immunization, one must weigh the options. On the one hand – in this example – we have WC. On the other, vaccines. So how do we weigh just these two examples against one another? Well, let’s start with the easy stuff. (Note: this is how we should compare vaccines to diseases in other cases as well) [4]. Risk factors: Whooping Cough* Immunizations** Pneumonia - 1 in 4 children Fever - 1 in 4 children Apnea/Dyspnea (no/difficult breathing) >1 in 2 children Redness or swelling – 1 in 4 children Seizures - > 1 in 100 children Seizures – 1 in 14,000 children Brain Damage - 3 in 100 children High Fever >105F – 1 in 16,000 children Death – 1 in 100 children Serious Allergic reaction – 1 in 1 million children Source: * https://www.cdc.gov... ** https://www.cdc.gov... (b) There’s some scary stuff going on here. Though, WC is scarier. And guess what? You get the same sort of results for Polio, Diphtheria, Measles, Mumps etc [4]. In each case the disease is significantly more dangerous than the immunization against it. Vaccines may cause mild fever and redness in one out of four children but only 1 out of every million have an allergic reaction. Now look at WC around the world. 1 out of every 100 children DIE. Approximately 1 out of every 100 children have SEIZURES. ~1 out of every 300 may suffer BRAIN DAMAGE. Nearly 1 out of 4 catch PNEUMONIA and greater than half have respiratory problems. Now ask yourself. “Would you rather risk Whooping Cough or Immunization?” So we see that vaccines have decreased disease incidence worldwide AND the dangers of disease far outweigh the dangers of vaccines. So we must conclude that ON BALANCE thus far, our children should be vaccinated. SOURCES: [1] http://www.who.int... [2] https://www.unicef.org... [3] https://vicskeptics.wordpress.com... [4] https://www.cdc.gov...