OP-ED: Vaccinate Your Children!

Several concerns are coming up with unvaccinated children

OP-ED: Vaccinate Your Children!

Haley Mignon

The argument has been circling around for years as to whether parents need to vaccinate their children or not.  In my opinion, children need to be vaccinated because it is not only putting their own children at risk but the children around them as well. If a child contracts a disease because of the lack of vaccinations, then the disease can be spread to others. Parents that refuse to vaccinate their children in my opinion are extremely selfish because they are not thinking of all the effects and pain their child will go through if they do contract a disease.

Some parents find the need not to vaccinate their children because of several reasons. One main reason for parents refusing to vaccinate children is religious beliefs. There are various religions in which the followers believe very strongly against vaccinations. Other reasons that parents refuse is because they feel as though the risk of their child contracting a disease is very small, they believe in natural healing, and others just believe what they are putting in their child’s body is worse than the illness itself.

The benefit of parents vaccinating children is the prevention of disease. These vaccinations can prevent future issues along with saving the parents money in the long run. If a child contracts the disease due to the lack of a vaccination, their parents will have to put time and money into curing the illness and the doctor’s appointments following. Another main reason the vaccinate your children is because it can not only affect them, but that it can affect their children as well. Some diseases are passed down through generations, and if you don’t vaccinate your children it will be a constant chain of misfortunes.

One main example of the lack of vaccinations is the outbreak of the measles in Washington State. There were 71 people who contracted the measles in Clark County, Washington. Out of the 71 people affected, 52 of them were younger than the age of ten and were known to be unvaccinated. This is a prime example because if these children were vaccinated there would not have been this as much of a spread of the measles as there was.

These vaccinations are inserted through a needle into the child’s body. There are a various of vaccinations all the way from the chicken pox to the measles to something as small as the flu shot. All of these vaccinations will help you in the long run and prevent you from contracting several diseases that will be harmful to your body. The real question is… Will you vaccinate your children or will you put them in harm’s way?