English 101 Final Essay
English 101 Final Essay
English 101 Final Essay
English 102
Currently, the US vaccination program has been deployed for a long period of time, since
the first vaccine was founded by Edward Jenner and continue to blossom in the 1940s until now
(Kołłątaj, Witold, 2020). While that this program has provided significant public health benefits,
but at the same time there was an anti-vaccine movement occurring in the recent time, significantly
reducing the program's coverage and its efficiency. However, the majority of controversial debates
surrounding vaccines focus mainly on their ethical consideration. This not only reduces people's
confidence in the government but also directly affects public health, placing an exceptional burden
on the healthcare sector. Therefore, it is imperative to have public, transparent, and relevant
information about the ethical consideration of vaccines. For that reason, I strongly believe that it is
development and deployment so that the general public will have the full information regarding
their concerns. This action should be paid attention to and carefully considered by the vaccine
developers and authorities. Vaccine’s ethical questions should relay at three main aspects: safety,
legal, and accessibility consideration, and it should conclude that vaccine development can fulfill
its requirement and expectation for the safety of the mass population.
I. History of vaccines:
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention defines vaccines as “an antigenic
preparation derived from pathogenic microorganisms, that has been formulated to ensure the
necessary safety, making the body self-immune against pathogens” (CDC, 2018). When the
vaccination program is working, most people are vaccinated against the disease, sometimes the
disease can completely disappear from the community and the vaccination program may stop. In
the journal “Anti-Vaccine Movements – a Form of Social Activity for Health Care, Ignorance or
Diversion Aimed at Destabilizing the Health Situation”, Kołłątaj and Witold claims that “taking
into account the well-being of the entire population, vaccinations have an impact on extending life
expectancy, reducing the number of complications of infectious diseases, including reducing the
scale of disability, improving the quality of life of the population, saving (reducing sickness
absence, reducing expenditure on the treatment of diseases and their consequences) and adjusting
the epidemiological risk level to WHO and EU requirements” (Kołłątaj, Witold, 2020). However,
for some diseases such as measles, if the vaccination program is stopped, the rate of immunization
“Several factors need to be considered before a vaccine is deployed: the potential burden of
treatment; the duration of the protection conferred; cost; herd immunity in addition to individual
protection; and the logistical feasibility of a large-scale vaccination programme” (WHO, 2013).
While each individual will target their focus on different aspects, this essay would round up and
discuss the concern over safety measures, legal enforcement, and accessibility – as would be seen
It is important to note that in the early years of vaccine researches, in the 1980s to be
specific, safety guidelines were always in priority concerns after the concern over the safety of
children’s vaccines was surging. Given the case of how the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act
was passed, it is crucial to ensure that everyone was well informed about the vaccine development,
Further than that, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) – a group
designed to oversee the development and approval process of the vaccine development, further
given the recommendation and guidelines for the citizens to ensure the efficiency of immunization
programs – was founded in 1964. The guidelines and recommendations from ACIP will, later on,
be the official guidelines of the government. This means that the attention to the issue was stated
early in the history of vaccines, and consistently changed and adapted to fulfill the public’s
requirement. But it also needs to state that several things need to be considered over the supervisor
roles of ACIP in the private companies’ researches, especially when they only mainly receive and
viewing the process by viewing the scientific researches and re-evaluating the final results such as
trials results, packaging, cost, and liability, but not exclusively involved in the making process.
Later on, other bodies were founded to fulfilled and assist ACIP in its role to provide a thorough
guideline as well as oversee the making process of vaccines, named as Center for Biologics
Evaluation and Research, a department in the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).
The vaccine manufacturing process is complex, which requires several years for the entire
process to be completed. Initially, the vaccine will be studied in collaboration with government
researchers in partnership with the private sector, and then under corporate sponsorship, it will
progress to the testing phase. Ethical consideration in the vaccine development process revolves
mainly in this testing process. The testing process is divided into 2 phases: animal testing and
human testing, in which human testing continues to be divided into 3 more specific stages. Phase 1
of human trials will take place in a small group of different ages, if the vaccine is given to children,
then testing will be done on groups with higher age and the age of the participant will gradually
decrease over time as they reach the age to receive the vaccine. Stage 2 is similar, but with a larger
number of participants and includes those who are most likely to be infected. And phase 3 is the
testing phase with hundreds of thousands of people, to test the effectiveness and coverage of the
vaccine. The follow-up and testing of this testing process are mainly done through reports
Many conflicting opinions on the vaccine testing process have been raised over the years,
which can be categorized based on three main aspects: Safety guidelines; Legal considerations, and
accessibility considerations.
In terms of the safety guidelines, the majority of the controversial debate focused on the
safety measure and consent level in human trials and if the clinical trials and deployments on
vulnerable groups such as children and people with chronic illness are safe or not. These debates
mainly focus on the fact that while the government has control over the testing, no supervisor
action was taken further than evaluating the result from periodical reports.
In terms of legal considerations, people generally concern over current regulations being enforced
on vaccine trials. This argument mainly stays on the consent of participants in the process of
human trials, along with the lack of awareness of authorities over this specific stage in vaccine
development process.
And finally, in terms of accessibility considerations, it should be the most concerning issue
that has a huge impact on the effectiveness of the immunization program. The publics’ opinion
mainly focuses on the affordability of the vaccine and the chances to access the vaccine for certain
groups. Medical treatments are not cheap and should there be a program of financial assistance to
different groups that lack financial stability. Furthermore, there are concerns that people from
vulnerable groups and different ethics are having a hard time having their vaccine doses, especially
in the past few years, when the divide in the US society growing stronger.
1. The measure took by vaccine’s developers and authorities to ensure safety guidelines
is strictly followed.
As explained above, the vaccine testing process goes through many different stages, with
the extent of the samples becoming increasingly complex and broader in terms of quality and scale.
According to WHO, “monitoring adverse vaccine reactions is a major safety component of pre-
licensure clinical trials” (WHO, 2013). Interfering with this testing process by supervisors is often
not recommended due to confidentiality reasons, as a result of the high level of competition
between pharmaceutical companies and vaccine centers. However, disclosing this information does
not affect vaccine safety, as vaccine testing procedures have been carefully developed with a
reasonable path, starting from animal testing, to human testing. From 100 people at the starting
point, it can be up to approximately 10,000 people in the final stage, with a wide range of ages and
In addition, ensuring the safety of vaccines is not only deployed during development but
also after being licensed. The authorities will still monitor and collect information about possible
reactions from vaccine receivers. This was evident in the cases of the COVID-19 vaccines of
AstraZeneca and Jonhson & Jonhson, following reports of cases of blood clots in the brain after the
vaccination process. Although the number of cases is small compared to the vast coverage of the
two vaccines, the rapid response of companies and authorities has shown the concern and deep
Revisit the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act was stated at the beginning of the
research, it was a perfect example of how authorities value the importance of safety guidelines and
the public’s understanding of the issue. The law came after a series of criticism and unproven
claims about the side effects of the pertussis vaccine, which can cause brain damage and even
autism (Institute of Medicine, 2010). Although later, many reports have analyzed and pointed out
that the above points were false and misleading, the public still shows obvious confusion and
suspicion of vaccination in general. This Act is designed to strengthen public confidence in the
safety of vaccines as well as to ensure the responsibility of stakeholders with the implementation of
the vaccination program. Similar drastic actions have been repeatedly taken, along with a
combination of regulators such as the FDA, CDC, or ACIP, all expressing a deep concern for the
understandable, given the risk between the safety of a large population, as well as the success or
failure of building community immunity and the likelihood of success in the battle in any
pandemic.
Another controversial opinion of ethical consideration is about consent in too human trials.
This concern mainly revolved around whether participants were fully aware of the risks of
participating in trials, especially when medical knowledge and terminology were rather confusing
to the most of population. However, this has been ensured when the participants are given specific
instructions, from the documentation to the explanation of the specialist, are provided with full
information about the use, ingredients and mechanism of the vaccine, and the possible responses
toward the vaccine trial. Participants or guardians of those taking part need to have a high
understanding of the vaccination and testing process and have sufficient cognitive capacity before
joining. This is supervised and guaranteed by a team of nurses, doctors as well as lawyers to ensure
This also means that the vulnerable groups, especially children, cannot be the subjects of
the test until now. This causes a dilemma on how to ensure the safety of the vaccine in deployment
to such groups and simultaneously maintain the moral line. For the given reasons, to maintain
ethical consideration but simultaneously ensure the safeties of the vaccines, there are multiple ways
were conducted to tackle the problem, especially by scientific shreds of evidence through
researches.
Each step is closely supervised not only by the organizations themselves but also
authorities. As stated above, all stages are closely followed by authorities and supervisors. The
human trial stages need to have the consent of participants and authorities. This stage requires
mandatory updates both in statics and detail researches, usual updates on trials. And later on, at the
licensing stage, there is cross-checked between different authorities over the results of trials and
scientific researches, and the whole process may need years to be qualified for mass immunization
programs.
The lack of individual and authorities’ awareness and responsibilities is still among the
most concerning challenges that is needed to be worked on. A 2008 case study on how healthcare
workers are one of the groups that is the least likely to be vaccinated against influenza, even
though healthcare workers with influenza can easily pass the virus to their patients in Newell,
Alexa’s “Preventing Flu in Health Workers: Vaccination Challenge Is Launched” article will
illustrate the significant impact of healthcare providers and health worker to be the role model in
getting vaccination (Newell, Alexa, 2008). This also demonstrates the lack of individual and
accessible to the public. We must consider another fact that is these health-care workers have been
programs. This left only one explanation to the low influenza vaccination rates among the health-
care workers, which is that the health-care workers are not aware of the importance of getting
vaccinated for themselves and for the sake of their patients. Another research that I found is that
the immunization rates among preschool children in the United States are significantly low. The
measles epidemic, which resulted in about 55,000 cases and 132 measles-related deaths (CDC,
1993a), was tragic evidence that vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, rubella, diphtheria,
and pertussis remain a threat. (Institute of Medicine, 34) While the health-care workers are fully
grown adults, who are highly educated in the health sector should be responsible for getting
vaccinated, we cannot ask preschool children to take that responsibility. This proves that there is a
lack of responsibilities from local health departments, individual providers as well as the barrier in
IV. Accessibility:
The cost of vaccines can raise a problem to immunization programs over how lesser and
vulnerable groups with limited access to the health care system can access this program. These
groups are mainly children from families with few conditions and low access to health care, the
elderly, and many other disadvantaged groups. With health care costs rising in recent years in the
US, access to similar services has become increasingly difficult. But these people are also the
group at higher risk of infection than other groups because their awareness of diseases and the
ability to access information about disease prevention are remarkably low. For the above reasons, it
is imperative to provide a health regime through the national aid packages, for humanitarian
Vaccine affordability and immunization programs’ accessibility is a challenge that has a significant
impact on immunization programs in the United States. The National Immunization Survey-Teen
is a survey among caregivers of adolescents and vaccination providers by the mean of telephone
and mail. It was conducted in order to make an estimation of vaccination coverage in the U.S by
comparing the vaccination coverage between foreign-born and U.S.-born adolescents. “Foreign-
born adolescents had significantly lower unadjusted vaccination coverage for HepB. Coverage was
(National Immunization Survey-Teen, 2012) This illustrates the challenge with vaccine
affordability and inequality in access to immunization programs within the United States based on
one's insurance status, education, language, and household size. Not only the inequality contributes
to the inaccessibility of immunization services, but there are also complexities of the immunization
schedule and incomplete information about children's immunization status that do the same.
Distribution based on one's insurance status, education, language, and household size also
can pose an ethical issue. Not only the inequality contributes to the inaccessibility of immunization
services, but there are also complexities of the immunization schedule and incomplete information
about children's immunization status that do the same. This can happen due to the lack of resources
in a time of high demands, or even more socially deep-rooted problems. The ultimate goal of
distributing vaccines following strict rules is to protect those at greater risk, saving most lives as
possible and ensuring societal benefits, the real-life application might not follow the same rules,
when the information and application depend on such a diverse population with different accesses
and status, along with others concerns (Williams, Jane, 2021). This imposes a significant problem
to the immunization programs that up until now, there seems to be a lack of truly efficient solution.
It is non – debatable of the importance of vaccines to maintain the public’s health, and
while in some cases, the ethical line can cause a dilemma in the development process, but it is far
more important to raise the awareness of people toward the liability of vaccine. Times as the
current COVID 19 epidemics best demonstrate the importance of providing information and
expanding the coverage of vaccines to achieve public immunity. From the above arguments and
evidence, we can see that ethical consideration is always a priority in the policy of monitoring,
developing, and implementing vaccines to achieve immunity. However, this attention is mostly
process coordinated, while the distribution process and post-deployment surveillance, in particular,
has many shortcomings, even though this specific issue plays an exceptional crucial role in the
success or failure of the vaccination program. A loophole in the program could cause a more
catastrophic pandemic as the virus's strain could evolve very rapidly, and the virus's ability to resist
With that to be stated, the need to prioritize the moral concern and public the information
regarding this issue is extremely important and requires further actions of authorities, especially
while both legal and safety consideration is carefully designed, severe concerns still lay at the
accessibility of people to immunization programs. Therefore, when revisiting the thesis about the
importance of providing a clear and transparent system of ethical consideration to increase the
understanding and awareness of the people, the article proves that this thesis statement was
adequately made. This calls for action from all related stakeholders: vaccine developers need to
have systems that are easy to access, easy to understand for the majority of information during
testing. There is a greater emphasis on each step of development, as well as the distribution of
vaccines among disadvantaged and vulnerable groups in society. Such actions will ensure a
seamless and efficient implementation of the vaccination program, providing the ultimate benefit
for the whole community, as well as strengthening people's confidence in the health care and
Work Cited
Ducharme, Jamie. “New York City Is Requiring Some Residents to Get Vaccinated Against
time.com/5567422/mandatory-vaccination-legal-ethics/.
among Foreign-born and U.S.-born Adolescents in the United States: Successes and Gaps -
National Immunization Survey-Teen, 2012-2014". Vaccine, vol. 36, issue 13, March. 2018,
www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/imz-basics.htm#:~:text=Definition%20of%20Terms,-Let's
%20start%20by&text=Vaccine%3A%20A%20product%20that%20stimulates,or%20sprayed
%20into%20the%20nose.
Institute of Medicine (U.S.). "3: Informed Vaccine Decision Making."Priorities for the National
Kołłątaj, Witold, et al. “Anti-Vaccine Movements – a Form of Social Activity for Health Care,
Nursing for Women’s Health, vol. 12, no. 6, Dec. 2008, pp. 529–530. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1111/j.1751-486X.2008.00388.x.
Sifferlin, Alexandra. “Who Gets the Experimental Ebola Drugs?” Time Magazine, 12 Aug. 2014,
time.com/3104174/who-gets-the-experimental-ebola-drugs/.
Williams, Jane, et al. “How Should We Conduct Pandemic Vaccination?” Vaccine, vol. 39, no. 6,