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STUDENT NHD MEMOS

Essential Question: If you can cure cancer, why won't you? Vaccines were created to prevent sickness and disease and can even wipe them out if people would simply get the vaccines. Therefore, the vaccine should be mandatory for all 13 year olds.
 * MEMO 1 **
 * Date: April 5th **
 * To: Mrs. Sidor **
 * From: John Masters **
 * Subject: Memo 1: Topic Proposal **

If there was a way to completely wipe out a disease, would you jump at the chance to get rid of it? Consider the facts regarding cervical cancer. Rick Perry, governor of Texas in 2008, stated that cervical cancer killed a total of 34,000 Texans alone in 2008 (quoted by Robison). 6.2 million people in the U.S. are effected by cervical cancer each year (Cervical Cancer...). In 2007, a vaccine was created to cure this disease called Gardasil. The vaccine only works for people who have not been infected with disease already. For the vaccine to work most effectively, boys and girls around the age of 13 should get the vaccine. Since Gardasil and other vaccines were created to prevent sickness and in some cases cure them and it should be necessary that people get these vaccines so the diseases are eliminated.

**Essential Question: If you can cure it, why don't you?** **Thesis: Vaccines have been created to prevent sicknesses and in some cases cure them and it should be necessary that people get these vaccines so the diseases are eliminated.**


 * Memo 2 **
 * Date: April 10th, 2012 **
 * To: Mrs. Sidor **
 * From: John Masters **
 * Subject: Memo 2: Concisely state the issue, controversy or problem **

HPV, only recently discovered, is already effecting 6.2 million people in the United States alone and several million ore around the world (Cervical Cancer...). It doesn't necessarily kill all of these people because only about 30% of HPV viruses cause cervical cancer. Sadly, cervical cancer does kill over 30,000 people each year though (Quoted by Robison). Cervical cancer on effects women because, obviously, only women have a cervix. However, it is possible for men to translate the disease to women so it is almost just as important for men to get the shot so that they do not have HPV. Gardasil is meant to be given to women, age 9 to 26, and also men, age 9 to 26 (Lingohr-Smith). However, it is reccommended that they receive the first shot when they are 11 or 12.

Immediately following the discovery of this disease, cancer researchers started to develop a vaccine for it. Gardasil was originally created for women until it was found that cervical cancer can be transmitted from men into women. Gardasil is meant to be given to women, age 9 to 26, and also men, age 9 to 26 (Merk). Though Gardasil prevents HPV, it does not cure it which is why the ages recommended for the shots are so young. The vaccine has been saving well over 20,000 lives each year (Cervical Cancer...). The number has been increasing which shows that the number of people getting the vaccine is rising as well.


 * Date: April 13th, 2012 **
 * To: Mrs. Sidor **
 * From: John Masters **
 * Subject: Memo 3: Concisely state the issue, controversy or problem **

In 2007, a Texas governer decided to make it mandatory that 6th grade girls get the HPV vaccine to stop the cervical cancer problem in Texas. The governed himself is actually predicted to get prostate cancer because very generation of his family since 1850 has died from prostate cancer so he is most likely going to have a type of cancer. He knows how bad it is because he went through his dad's death of prostate cancer and all he is trying to do is prevent cancer for future generations (Quoted by Robison). While giving a speech about how he is determined to make Texas the leading state in the search for a cure he said, "'I'm really serious about this. Don't pooh-pooh a disease that is killing 34,000 [Texans a year alone],'" (Rick Perry). It is completely reasonable to make this vaccine mandatory because of how many lives it saves and Governer Perry is off to a good start of making this a nationwide program.

Cervical cancer currently effects 6.2 million people each year. This disease comes from something called the human papillomavirus (HPV) and 70% percent of these 30 types of diseases cause the life-threatening cervical cancer (Marchini). Cervical cancer claims about 4,000 lives in the U.S. each year (Cervical Cancer...). This cancer is a sexually transmitted disease and can be spread fairly easy. A vaccine was only recently discovered for cervical cancer but saves around 22,000 lives each year (Marchini). If more and more people start to get the vaccination, the disease will slowly die off and be gone in a matter of decades just as polio is now.

As you can see, vaccines have been very impactful solutions to these diseases. However, these vaccines are only taken through choice and that is why there are thousands of people that die each year from these viruses each year. If only everybody would receive the vaccines then the diseases would disappear.

** Memo 4 **
 * Date: April 18th, 2012 **
 * To: Mrs. Sidor **
 * From: John Masters **
 * Subject: Memo 4: **

In 1796 the vaccine was created by Edward Jenner, an English surgeon. He was concerned about the smallpox disease and noticed that cowpox was quite a similar disease. His idea was to take, "material from the cowpox sores of a young milkmaid and [scratch] it into the arm of a healthy 8-year-old boy," (Kent). Although it may sound gross, what this did was introduce the cowpox disease, which was very similar to smallpox, into the child's immune system. He got mildly sick with the disease but recovered quickly. In doing this, his immune system was introduced to the disease and it built up specific proteins to fight of the disease so that if it was ever introduced to him again, nothing would happen. Vaccines have been used since Edward Jenner's discovery and have been modified since then to cure other diseases such as polio and cervical cancer.

Polio arose in 1942 with 5,000 cases and jumped to 55,000 cases in 1949 ('Polio'). Then, by 1951 the number of cases decreased to around 28,000. However, from 1955 to 1956, cases dropped by 50 percent because of the discovery of the Salk vaccine ('Polio'). It was proven later, in 1960, that the Salk vaccine could wipe out the paralytic polio entirely. It was wiped out because people became afraid and decided to get vaccinated. If a fear factor is what is needed to make people get the Gardasil vaccine, then people should just look at the basic facts that of people who are killed every year by this disease. That will scare them for sure.

Vaccines are a very important part of American lives. They have been a way to prevent diseases or even just to deal with them ever since they were invented in 1796. I believe that they are the best way, and pretty much the only way, to wipe out diseases. Polio was wiped out by vaccines and I think that vaccines that prevent life-threatening illnesses, like polio and cervical caner, should be mandatory to receive at the age that is suited best for them. These shots would be provided by the government so they would be completely free and, "no charge would be placed on families for the vaccine," (Edelman). Many parents believe that for some vaccines, there is a direct correlation between the vaccines and their children having autism. However, as stated by a writer for CQ Researcher, there is not enough evidence to accept or decline the correlation between these vaccines and autism (Glazer) so parents should not come to the conclusion that these vaccines can cause autism. Some people say that the reactions to these shots outweigh the benefits of the shot.


 * Memo 5 **
 * Date: April 23rd, 2012 **
 * To: Mrs. Sidor **
 * From: John Masters **
 * Subject: Memo 5: **

The main argument, though, is that many people believe it could cause severe side effects or future diseases like autism. The vaccine was only released recently so there has not really enough known about it to see how much damage it could do. People's fears are that since there are vaccines similar to this one that have been mentioned to cause autism that this vaccine might do something just as dangerous. The vaccine most similar to this is the hepatitis B shot. A woman started fighting against this vaccine when, "her brother and a medical student who had worked for her developed severe complications following a series of hepatitis B shots," (Koch). Another shot that has been assumed to be the source of some problems is the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) shot. A study done by an English scientist showed that eight autistic children developed symptoms after receiving their MMR shots (Glazer). Some parents of autistic children still argue that this vaccine was the cause of their child's autism.

These shots, similar to the Gardasil shot, have never been proven to cause autism. People making these assumptions have no right to be saying this because they are wrong. Neil Kaneshiro, an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Medecine explains how vaccines do not cause autism in his article about autism. He writes that, "some people believe that the small amount of mercury (called thimerosal) that is a common preservative in multidose vaccines causes autism or ADHD. However, studies have NOT shown this risk to be true," (Kaneshiro). In short, the small amounts of mercury in some vaccines do not cause autism. Earlier in the article, he states that autism is generally discovered around the age of three. It would be unlikely to get autism from a vaccine like thee MMR vaccine when you receive it at five years old or older and definitely not at the age of 11.


 * Memo 6 **
 * Date: **
 * To: Mrs. Sidor **
 * From: John Masters **
 * Subject: Memo 6: **

Many people also argue that their 1st amendment rights are violated when being forced to take this vaccine. The first amendment states that people have the right to free choice (1st Amendment). There have been several cases in which the parents of a minor have denied their child the option to get a certain vaccine or transplant. Their argument is that, "minors do not have the legal capacity to consent to medical treatment," and in turn say, "the law generally presumes that only parents have the authority to make medical decisions for their minor children and that in doing so they will act on their child's best interest," (Derish).

On the other hand, many experts agree that the decision on who should make the final choice on whatever the matter may be should be made by the physician. The Journal of Pediatrics published an article called 'A proposal Concerning Decisions to Forgo Life Sustaining Treatment for Young People.' This arcticle came to the conclusion that, "the physician is obligated to determine the maturity level in the seriously ill juvenile and to facilitate the patient's self determination," (quoted by Derish). The author of the article that talks about this article writes for The Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics.


 * Memo 7 **
 * Date: **
 * To: Mrs. Sidor **
 * From: John Masters **
 * Subject: Memo 7: **

The most commonly question asked is; Does it work? Several people ask that same question about the HPV vaccine, Gardasil. Most of the people who are asking this question are the parents of the teens who are recommended to take the shot. Since the vaccine has not been used for a very long time, there is not much feedback on side effects or how cancer-proof it is. Dr. Christian Fiala, a practitioner from Vienna, Austria, "asserts that HPV is not even itself responsible for causing cervical cancer, which makes the vaccine completely useless at accomplishing the very thing for which it was marketed," (Huff). He also exclaims that there is no proof of a relationship between HPV and cervical cancer.

If the vaccine is useless at accomplishing what it was made for as Dr. Fiala said, then why has this vaccine reduce the number of deaths since it was made? In 2012 the vaccine is estimated to prevent about 22,000 deaths related to cervical cancer and has saved around that number in previous years (ABC-Clio). The only reason it would not work is if the person was already sexually active and had contracted HPV which is likely to turn into cervical cancer. The vaccine has yet to fail in preventing cervical cancer so this makes it extremely preventable. An article written by Dr. Melissa Lingohr-Smith who has a Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology writes that, "The National Cancer Institute stated that studies have demonstrated that Gardasil prevents almost 100 percent of precancerous cervical cell growth that is caused by the particular HPV types that the vaccine targets," (Lingohr-Smith).


 * Memo 8 **
 * Date: **
 * To: Mrs. Sidor **
 * From: John Masters **
 * Subject: Memo 8: **

Cervical cancer has been a devistating disease but there is a simple solution. The simple and easy way to make the disease go completely extinct is the Guardasill vaccine. Just three shots spread at least 6 months apart are simple to attain from a regular doctor (CQ Researcher). The vaccine can even be retrieved at Wallgreen's (gardasil.com).

"Cervical Cancer: Yearly Number of Cases and Related Deaths." ABC-CLIO. Web. 14 May 2012. . This secondary source table, although written by an unknown author, the database I found it on, ABC-Clio, is a database used throughout our entire school. The table is being used in my project because it provided me with recent information about deaths from cervical cancer in both men and women each year and it also estimates the number of deaths the vaccine can save each year.   Kent, Christopher. "Polio Vaccine." Chiropractic Journal. 01 Mar. 2000: 42. eLibrary. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. This secondary source web article is written by Christopher Kent who is a frequent writer for eLibrary. This article is helping me with my project because it is about the polio vaccine and how effective it was on the polio disease. It explains how the vaccine wiped out the disease almost completely which is exactly what would happen with Gardasil. Huff, Ethan. "Physician speaks out: Gardasil vaccine dangerous, completely useless at preventing cervical cancer." Natural News. Web. 14 May 2012. . This secondary source web article is written by Ethan Huff who is a staff writer for Natural News which is a non profit organization owned by a Taiwan Corporation. This article helped me for this project because it was one of the arguments against me. I used it to explain how beneficial the vaccine is to the World. "Information About Gardasil." Gardasil. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://www.gardasil.com>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This primary source article is written by Merk & Co., which is the corporation that invented the vaccine for sevical cancer, Gardasil. I used this websites homepage to my advantage to explain the benefits of the vaccine and how it prevented so many cases each year of cervical cancer. Kaneshiro, Neil K. "Autism." Pub Med Health. 26 Apr. 2010. Web. 16 May 2012. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov>. This secondary source article is written by Neil Kaneshiro. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. The article is about autism and the things that cause it. It explains how, contrary to popular belief, vaccines are not presumed to be the cause of autism. This helps me write my paper because I use this information to prove that autism is purely genetic and is not caused by vaccines. <span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Koch, Kathy. "Are Today's Vaccines Safe Enough?" CQ Researcher. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://library.cqpress.com>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: medium;">This secondary source web article is written by Kathy Koch, who is an assistant managing editor for CQ Researcher. This article provided me with information about side effects of certain vaccines. It also talks about reason to take or not to take certain vaccines. It helped my with my research because I was able to determine if the side effects were less than that of the positive results. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Koch, Kathy. "Vaccine Controversies." CQ Researcher Online. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://library.cqpress.com>. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">This secondary source web article is written by Kathy Koch who is an assistant managing editor for CQ Researcher. The article talks about why vaccines can be controversial. I used the article to help my argument on why it is better to receive the vaccines because the vaccines did not cause other diseases. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Marchini, Valerie. "Cervical Cancer: Is Your Child at Risk?" eLibrary. 20 Apr. 2012. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://www.elibrary.bigchalk.com>. I found this secondary web article on eLibrary and it is written by Valerie Marchini who is a registered nurse and works with autistic children. In the article, she writes about cervical cancer and HPV and how they are linked as well as how many people it effects. The article helps me with my paper because it is about cost and side effects but supports the shot and says cervical cancer is a very preventable disease. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Robison, Clay. "As questions brew, Perry explains push for HPV vaccine: For the governor, it's also personal." EBSCOHost. 16 Feb. 2007. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://web.ebscohost.com>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px;"> This secondary source web article is written by Clay Robison who is columnist for the Houston Chronicle. The article is about Rick Perry's plan to mandate the cervical cancer vaccine. This arcticle helps me with my project because the author quotes Perry several times explaining the benefits of the vaccine. <span style="color: #0e0e0e; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">Lingohr-Smith, Melissa. "How Does Gardasil Work?" LIVESTRONG. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://livestrong.com>. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">I found this secondary source web article on Livestrong.com and it is written by Melissa Lingohr-Smith who has received grant funding in diabetes research, and has a Ph.D. in pharmacology/toxicology. The article gives a brief overview of the disease and also about the efficacy of the vaccine. It helped with my research because I was able to find out how effective the vaccine was in preventing cervical cancer. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0e0e0e; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;"> "Polio (1956)." World Book Year Books. 2009. eLibrary. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0e0e0e; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">I found this secondary source web article on eLibrary and although there was no author's name to go with it, eLibrary is a school recommended database. The article is being helpful towards my project because it explains in detail how devastating polio was to America. It also shows numbers of deaths before and after the vaccine for polio was created and explains how well the vaccine worked which helps prove my point with how well the Gardasil vaccine could work. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Mature minors should have the right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment." eLibrary. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://elibrary.bigchalk.com>. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: medium; text-align: left;">This article provided me with information about minors and their rights when it comes to medical treatment. The article is credible because I found it on a database which was on the gold sheet. The article provided me with both sides of the argument on whether or not minors have the right to say whether they should receive the shot or not. "My Order Protects Life." USA Today. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://www.usatoday.com>.
 * ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY **