As of January 28, 2019, the State of Washington declared a state of emergency due to a measles outbreak. And I'm sorry, anti-vaxxers, but this could have been prevented if everyone would vaccinate their children when they're told by a doctor to do it.

Now, measles isn't a deadly virus, but it is HIGHLY contagious, which is where the problem comes in.

According to the CDC, measles can, in fact, be prevented. Two doses should be given to children, beginning around the age of 1. Another one should be administered between the ages of 4 and 6. Getting both doses of the MMR vaccine is 97% effective in keeping your child safe from measles, mumps, and rubella.

So, this one vaccine could have prevented 36 cases of measles.

Think about that, 36 people, and the 11 other suspected cases, could be a significantly smaller number if everyone would just get the doctor recommended vaccines.

I just want to drop this picture in here because I want it to be known how many cases of measles were reported every year in the early 1900s. Before vaccines were created, 6,000 cases were reported. Most children suffered from measles before the age of 15. In the 1950s, which really wasn't that long ago, the CDC stated that "an estimated 400 to 500 people died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and 1,000 suffered encephalitis (swelling of the brain) from measles."

Back then, there wasn't a choice. You had to do whatever home remedies you could to prevent yourself and your loved ones from getting this disease. If you got it, you had to nurse yourself back to health.

But now, we have this shot that we can have administered to us, and this shot can tremendously help keep the measles cases reported to a small percentage.

In fact, "measles was declared eliminated (absence of continuous disease transmission for greater than 12 months) from the United States in 2000. This was thanks to a highly effective vaccination program in the United States," also coming from the CDC.

So, hopefully, these facts have made you realize just how important vaccines are and what they do for us. Yes, there are side effects to vaccines, but there are side effects for all medications, prescriptions, and shots. I would rather suffer some temporary side effects from a vaccine than have to deal with something like measles, that was proven to be prevented by the vaccine.

Just vaccinate your kids, people.