Dear vaccination of children debate,
In your lifetime have you ever suffered from Polio? Nope. The measles? No to that. Ok, how about tuberculosis? What’s that you say? A negative on that also. I’m not the Surgeon General nor do I claim to be a doctor, nurse or have ever earned any fancy letters to follow my signature. I frown upon needles and will not let the person I care for and trust the most insert an IV in me. With that disclaimer out of the way (the lawyers have been getting after me) I want to pass along some sage medical advice….. Vaccinating your children is a GOOD thing. The miracle of modern medicine and the advent of vaccines has either eradicated or greatly reduced a number of diseases that before were a major cause of fatalities not only among newborns and young children but also adults. Parents who choose to avoid life saving vaccines for their children like the plague (I got jokes) are not only putting their own child at risk but are exposing their peers to the possibility of being affected by any number of life threating diseases. I know what you naysayers are thinking. “Marcus, how can a kid contract a disease that it has been immunized for? The only one that is at risk is my own child.”….. WRONG! Not all immunizations shots are given at birth. A great number are not administrated until after the first month of a child’s life. Also, there are numerous children who suffer from immune conditions that leave them vulnerable to life threating diseases even though they have been vaccinated. Yep, your judgment is solitary in its actions. Parents who don’t believe in the immunization of their children often refer to the “herd immunity” mentality when it comes to protecting them from an infectious disease. If the majority of their peers are vaccinated they have no worries….WRONG again. With more parents refraining from the use of vaccines the more susceptible the “herd” is to contracting a life threating disease. To borrow from the realm of agriculture, if you have one sick cow, he is going to have an impact on the entire herd. Vaccine preventable diseases flourish where there is no herd immunity. It’s science. The fear that some parents also claim is that vaccines in children lead to an increased risk of autism later in childhood. So what you’re telling me is that you are willing to risk your son or daughter’s wellbeing because you read a small sample study from some European country that there “might” be a correlation between the two? In the bluntest way possible, I’m saying you should probably reassess your parenting abilities. Personal belief isn’t going to keep your child healthy. Polio doesn’t care what you think, it only wants to disable or kill your offspring. Religion isn’t going to prevent your child from contracting TB. Believing in God is going to give you hope if he or she ever suffers from this crippling disease while medication works it course in saving them. Progress and the advancement in medicine is what has increased our life expectancy from 46 to 74 over the last hundred years. It has wiped polio and smallpox from our vocabulary. I’m not saying to not ask your doctor questions when it comes to the wellbeing of your child, what I am stating is that the aforementioned numbers don’t lie and you don’t need a prescription for that...
PS. Happy hump day peeps on this sunny Wednesday. Get out on enjoy some vitamin D and remember….Always be touching her, even when your hands cannot reach.
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