Vaccinations Pros and Cons

Most parents of this generation never had to experience what life was like before vaccines were used. Public health officials credit the mandating of mass vaccination to the almost extinct instances of the communicable disease vaccines help prevent.   In the United States, most states have enacted laws that require proof of certain inoculations before allowing a child to enter a daycare or school. Each state is also different with laws regarding exemptions. Most exemptions are limited to medical, religious or personal objections. Some states allow parents to give no reason at all.   Some believe the rise in philosophical objections to routine childhood vaccinations could be blamed on internet access. There are currently thousands of websites readily available to anyone who reads them-most of whom have no medical understanding. These websites encourage fear and alarm for parents creating fear that allowing their child to be vaccinated can and or will cause harm. There is one undisputed fact regarding vaccines. Vaccines are drugs and no drug available on earth is considered 100% safe.

Most parents along with others feel that vaccination should be required for children.   No individual should have the right to risk the health of the public solely for the purpose of satisfying their personal, moral, philosophical, or religious views.   Vaccination protects individuals from disease, but its impact is more far-reaching. Vaccination also benefits an entire community. When you are infected, your vaccine-primed immune system revs up to speed and stops you from becoming contagious — or at least shortens the time you are contagious — minimizing your opportunity to infect others. Likewise, if everyone around you has been vaccinated, you, by definition, are more likely to be protected from infection. There comes a

point when enough members of a community have vaccine protection that everyone in that community, including even the unvaccinated, is less likely to get sick. This...