Ron Paul, MD, former US representative, in an Oct. 19, 2011 article, ”Government Vaccines-Bad Policy, Bad Medicine,” stated, “intimately medical decisions should not be made by government...Freedom over one’s physical person is the most basic freedom of all, and people in a free society should be sovereign over their own bodies. When we give government the power to make medical decisions for us, we in all essence accept the state owns our bodies.” Yes, we have a right to make medical decisions for our children but are we making the right decision when it comes to vaccines. After Edward Jenner introduced the first successful smallpox vaccine in 1796, vaccines have become very important to the healthcare system. Yet, many parents don’t want their kids to be vaccinated. Vaccines are supported widely, and have proven to lower risk of outbreaks, have very few side effects, and save parents money and time. That is why it is important to get vaccinated.

Many major health organizations support vaccinations, ones including Center for Disease Control (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Institute of Medicine (IOM), American Medical Association (AMA), UNICEF, and National Foundation of Infectious Disease (NFID). Vaccinations are supported by research from around the world, and researches are trying to improve the effectiveness and safety. In a June 5, 2014 article called “Safety” the US Department of Health and Human Services stated, “ Vaccines are some of the safest medical products available.”

Increases in vaccinations make the world safer and make better public health. Diseases like smallpox and polio which have killed millions of people are practically unknown because of vaccines. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics,” Most childhood vaccines are 90%-99% effective in preventing disease.” Now vaccines can cause discomfort, pain, and tenderness near the injection, but that is nothing compared to not getting the vaccine and catching a dangerous disease. Vaccines have reduced and eliminated many diseases. Diseases that used to kill or paralyze people are now pretty much gone because of these vaccines, but with many parents lately not vaccinating their children that makes the risk of those diseases coming back greater. There may be a lower chance of getting a disease if you're not vaccinated, but only if your city or state meets the herd immunity threshold.

Herd Immunity means the percentage of people who need to be vaccinated against contagious diseases to reduce the likeliness of an outbreak. The reason why herd immunity is so important is that it makes it more unlikely for an outbreak of a contagious disease to occur and protects most members of a community who are exposed to it. Children and Adults who are not able to get vaccinated because of poor health, age, or other reasons, really rely on herd immunity to protect them from vaccine-preventable diseases. In 2005 an 18-month year old girl contracted Polio and spread it to 4 other unvaccinated children, but because the community met the herd immunity standards for the disease, there was no Polio outbreak. Now because there has been a decrease in vaccinations herd immunity is less dependant on keeping away outbreaks. In this 2005 case herd immunity stopped the community from a Polio outbreak, but that may not be the case in these recent years because of the decline in vaccinations. According to the CDC in 2011, pertussis( whooping cough) sickened 42,000 people because 49 U.S. states did not meet the herd immunity threshold. This was one of the biggest outbreaks since 1955. Furthermore, herd immunity is a must when it comes to vaccinations.

If vaccines save lives then why doesn’t everyone get vaccinated? According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), all vaccines do carry a risk of an allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) in about 1 per million children.” Now I get it some parents don’t want to take the risk of their child/children having an allergic reaction to the vaccine, but all medications have some type of risk or side effect, and yet many still take the medication, plus scientists to this day are still working on making vaccines safer than they already are.

Next leading onto another reason why parents don’t want to vaccinate their kids, it may go against their belief or defies their religion. Some religions only believe in natural immunity and believe that “artificial immunity” (vaccines) aren’t safe. They may also think that because there haven’t been any recent outbreaks, their kids don’t need to be vaccinated. But because there are fewer kids being vaccinated this brings the changes of an outbreak to rise. According to the CDC, there was a measles outbreak in Minnesota in 2017, and the first few cases were children who were unvaccinated. Now, this is one of many little cases of outbreaks in the U.S, so you might want to rethink about not getting your child vaccinated because the next outbreak could be near you.

Vaccines take up less time and money to have than obtaining an infectious disease. When your child gets an infectious disease because of not getting a vaccination, costs for the treatment and time off work will happen. If there is a possibility of long-term care then more time and money will add up too. For example, a measles outbreak in Jan. 2008 in San Diego, CA consequenced in 11 unvaccinated children upholding the measles. This resulted in the net public-sector paying $10,376 per case and $123,512 total, because of the emergency vaccination and outbreak response. To conclude getting vaccinate helps you with time and money immensely.

Overall vaccines are supported greatly by people, cities, and administrations, ones like the CDC and FDA. Having proven to lower risk of outbreaks which can be shown will herd immunity like the 2005 case about Polio. Vaccines have some, but very few side effects and save parents more money and time according to many cases like the 2008 case of measles. Now as I stated earlier it’s your choice to make your own medical decisions, but don’t let the decrease in outbreaks change it or because the diseases vaccines targeted have disappeared. Outbreaks have begun to increase because of the less vaccinated children, so make sure your kids are vaccinated. Remember vaccines are here to help not to hurt. Edward Jenner didn’t create the first known vaccine for nothing. In addition, vaccines have been proven to do all these parts so why don’t you do yours and be pro-vaccine.