Vaccinating Children, Annotated Bibliography Example

Childhood Vaccines: Tough Questions, Straight Answers. Mayo Clinic. Web. 2013.

27 Jan. 2013. <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vaccines/CC00014>.

This website by the Mayo Clinic discusses how vaccines protect children from a “variety of serious or potentially fatal diseases” like diphtheria, measles, meningitis, polio, tetanus and whooping cough” (2013). For most people, diseases like diphtheria and meningitis may not be familiar to them which can be explained by the fact that vaccines for these diseases are “doing their job” and helping to eradicate them. Overall, this website explores “the benefits and risks of childhood vaccines” with “straight answers to common questions about childhood vaccines” (2013).

Immunizations–Childhood Immunizations. WebMD. Web. 2013. 27 Jan. 2013. <http://children.webmd.com/vaccines/tc/immunizations-childhood-immunizations>.

As described by the Children’s Vaccines Health Center, this website explores specific childhood vaccine immunizations as recommended by the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Family Physicians. Much like the Mayo Clinic website, this site stresses the fact that childhood immunizations “protect against diseases by providing immunity” and “make a disease less severe” if a child happens to become infected. This site also provides a complete schedule that outlines “immunizations and booster shots needed from birth through age eighteen” as well as “catch-up immunizations” on a periodic basis (2013).

Vaccines. ProCon.org., 2013. Web. 27 Jan. 2013. <http://vaccines.procon.org/>.

This website, created by ProCon.org, an independent and non-profit charitable organization, focuses on vaccine effectiveness and safety related to childhood vaccine immunizations. As it points out, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for regulating all vaccines; however, there are no federal laws that mandate childhood vaccinations, but most U.S. states “require certain vaccinations for children entering public schools” (2013). This site also explores the pros and cons of vaccinations by noting that “proponents argue that vaccination is safe and one of the greatest health developments of the 20th century,” while opponents “argue that children’s immune systems can deal with most infections naturally” (2013).

Vaccines and Immunizations. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 18 Jan. 2013. Web. 27 Jan. 2013. <http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/>.

Perhaps the best website devoted to childhood vaccines and immunizations, the CDC explores a number of important topics, such as immunization schedules, vaccines in the U.S. vaccines and preventable diseases, vaccine side effects and safety, vaccination coverage and surveillance, requirements and laws, and education and training. It also provides a number of publications related to controlling disease outbreaks, contraindications and precautions, the administering of vaccines, and information for concerned parents (2013).

Your Child’s Immunizations. KidsHealth. Web. 2013. 27 Jan. 2013. <http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/immunizations/vaccine.html>.

This website is a bit more technical that the others, due to discussing how immunizations work by “creating immunity to certain diseases via small amounts of a killed or weakened microorganism that causes the particular disease” (2013). These

microorganisms can be either viruses or bacteria and can be controlled through vaccines that “stimulate the immune system to react as if there were a real infection” (2013). This site also examines the various types of vaccines, what vaccines are required for children, and the concerns over vaccines being dangerous because parents are “worried that their children will have serious reactions or may get the illness the vaccine is supposed to prevent” (2013).