Capella 4000 Assessment 3 Applying Ethical Principles NHS-FPX 4000 Developing a Health Care Perspective ​​​​​​​Applying Ethical Principles

She accepted the fact that vaccines have received various controversies in recent times, however, they have saved millions of lives as well. She provided the example of decreased incidences of Haemophilus influenzae type b and measles which are life-threatening infectious diseases in children. Moreover, she talked about autism disorder which was previously said to be caused by Thimerosal but recent studies deny this opinion. Dr. Kerr further established her points by sharing a reporting system that has been developed by governmental bodies to report adverse events from vaccines.

This reporting system tends to aware governmental organizations about vaccines so that quality can be improved. To conclude her point, she tried to develop insight for Smiths regarding communal good by explaining Herd Immunity. After all the discussion, Dr. Kerr was sure that she will receive a positive response from the parents but the situation remained the same and became a moral issue for the doctor. 

Assessment of Facts from the Case Study

 The conclusion of the presented case study is that it is an ethical dilemma for Dr. Kerr to choose between medical recommendations and the wish of Anna’s parents. Childhood immunizations have several controversies and such cases are very common in healthcare settings where parents are reluctant to vaccinate their children and healthcare research is opposite to their opinions. Some of the facts from the case study that can be analyzed are parental refusal, the concept of detrimental effects of vaccines which include online blogs providing unreliable information, medical research about positive effects, and the concept of communal good.  

Parental Refusal

As mentioned in the case study, the Smiths were not in favor of vaccinating Anna and hence refused it. Literature supports this point by stating that in various parts of the world, parental refusal has been common in terms of vaccinating children. World Health Organization states that every year around 2-3 million children die because of being unvaccinated and one of the common reasons is parental perception (Saeed & Hashmi, 2021). Another source mentions that hesitancy by parents has been a major reason for various outbreaks of diseases that can be prevented by immunizations (Fernández-Basanta et al., 2021). 

Harmful Effects of Vaccines

According to the literature, the component used in childhood vaccines – thimerosal is considered safe and effective by the World Health Organization. Moreover, various peer-reviewed studies also indicate a “no risk” of autism from vaccines that have thimerosal. Hence, there is no evidence of a link between autism disease and childhood vaccinations (Gabis et al., 2022).

As shared in the case scenario, online resources like blogs and videos on social media channels from people who are against vaccinations can be unreliable for parents. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control identified that digital media especially social apps and websites are primarily affecting vaccine reluctance in parents because they are easily captured by the myths and rumors which are shared online (Garett & Young, 2021). 

Positive Effects of Vaccines 

In the case study, Dr. Kerr elaborated on the benefits of vaccines. She focused on two infectious diseases (measles and Haemophilus influenzae). A research study identifies that globally around 66% of measles cases decrease from the year 2000-2018. The major reason behind this is routine vaccination that prevents measles disease (Gastañaduy et al., 2021). Talbird and colleagues (2022), mentioned in their study that vaccinations have proved to decrease the incidence of Haemophilus influenzae type B by 80% (Talbird et al., 2022). 

Communal Good – Herd Immunity

Another fact from the case study that Dr. Kerr mentioned about is herd immunity. It is defined as immunizing healthy individuals so that they can save immunocompromised people from infectious diseases (Ashby & Best, 2021). A study provides evidence that vaccines are ethically implied on healthy children so that other children in the community who are contraindicated from vaccines can be benefitted as well. This is called the “common good” (Rus & Goselj, 2021).

The reasons for using these resources are a) they explain vaccine reluctance in detail, b) they provide researched evidence against the unreliable resources available online, c) explicitly support the importance of vaccines to prevent diseases, and d) explain the concept of herd immunity as a common good.  

Communication Approaches and their Effectiveness