Before I start, I would just like to say that vaccines do not cause Autism. There has been not one, not two, but numerous studies that conclude that there is not a relationship between vaccines and Autism. I can understand parents, friends, and family wanting answers to why their child has Autism, and thinking that since vaccines add various chemicals to the body that it could be the cause, however, vaccines have come a long way, and your child will be safer if you, your family, and your child receive the vaccines.
Now, with that out of the way, I would like to discuss why I think we should all be vaccinated:
Why did we start vaccinating in the first place?
We made vaccines in order to get rid of certain illnesses that were in most cases deadly. By creating the vaccines, people would significantly decrease the chance of themselves getting the disease, and also lessened the chance that a loved one would get it because they couldn't spread it.
Shouldn't all of the diseases we vaccinated for be gone now?
No, a lot of these diseases are still around, but there are not nearly as many cases as we had previously. All it takes is one person who has it to spread it around to others that have not received the vaccination.
How we can learn from past mistakes
According to the CDC, about 40 years ago Japan had only 393 cases of pertussis because 80% of their children had received the vaccination for pertussis. Then people stopped vaccinating because they thought that the disease had been eliminated and they stopped giving their children the vaccine. A few years later the vaccination rate dropped down to 10% and 13,000 kids developed pertussis, and 41 of these individuals died. Once they started vaccinating again, the number of cases decreased. (CDC, 2014) If we can learn anything from this story it is that we have to keep vaccinating until the disease is eliminated, so that it doesn't flare up again.
Not everyone can get the vaccine
This isn't talked about very much, but there are some people that cannot get the vaccines. I am one of those people, and I wish I wasn't. If everyone that can get the vaccine, does get the vaccine, it protects people like me that cannot get certain vaccinations. This creates herd immunity which essentially is just when most people receive vaccine x, it will decrease the chance of anyone else getting disease x.
Think of the future
By eliminating, or at least reducing these diseases that we do have vaccines for, we are protecting every other individual as well as ourselves. If we get vaccinated, we are lessening the chance that our own child will have the disease, or our grandchildren, or our best friend. 50 years down the road, these diseases could be gone, and no one else would ever have to have them.
2014. Why Immunize? CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/why.htm
