by Jacqueline Stoughton
I’m at the awkward stage in life where half my friends are having babies, while the other half are at the peak of their party days.
Although I’d say I’ve definitely grown up from my own days of weekend party binges freshman and sophomore year, I’m not quite at the point in my life where I want or am anywhere near ready to have a child.
However, the debate around whether or not children should be vaccinated or not is a no brainer. My friends who are parents may argue, “You’re not a parent so you don’t understand.” Simply because I’m not a parent doesn’t mean I haven’t done research on the subject.
This was, and still is, a huge political debate I’ve followed and gained enough knowledge from various sources of research to produce a creditable opinion.
To all my friends with babies and toddlers – please vaccinate your children. I recognize all the cons that come with vaccinations, but this is one of those cases when the pros greatly outweigh the cons.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), all vaccines cause serious side effects that can be life-threatening in some cases. The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) said vaccines may be linked to learning disabilities, asthma, autism, diabetes, chronic inflammation and others.
The most common side effect of vaccines is anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction. This only effects one in one million children. Just like surgeries, just like any other cold medicines, including Advil – there’s a risk. Realistically, there’s a risk in everything we do, take, eat and drink.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, child vaccines are 90 to 99 percent effective. The CDC estimates about 723,000 American children were saved from death by a disease and 322 million childhood illnesses were prevented by vaccines between 1994 to 2014. The measles vaccine alone, has decreased childhood deaths from measles by 74 percent.
So yes there is a risk, but there’s always a risk. The benefits of being vaccinated, I think, is beyond worth the risk.
Another popular arguing point are the harmful ingredients included in these vaccines. Dangerous components such as mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde, egg and yeast proteins are used. All of which, I agree, have the potential to be medically harmful.
The biggest misconception and the biggest thing parents don’t realize is these ingredients have the potential to be harmful – it’s all in how they are used. These ingredients are never distributed in large quantities that would make the vaccine truly harmful.
According to Paul Offit, M.D., young children are exposed to more harmful bacteria and viruses in a day by participating in normal activities, than they would be by receiving proper vaccinations.
You’re not putting your child in any more danger by providing them with vaccinations. If anything, you’re putting them in more medical danger by not vaccinating them.
Everyone has their own opinion of “what’s best for their child” when it comes to the vaccine debate and it’s difficult to change a mother’s mind when it involves her children. However, the only way to give children their best chance at a healthy, long life, is to make sure they receive all vaccinations.
When your child inevitably gets a disease that turns into something more serious and could have been easily prevented, or when your child is the cause of a measles outbreak at school – you’ll be regretting your initial anti-vaccine decision.