As the daughter of a nurse practitioner, there was no question whether I would be vaccinated or not.
Each age milestone was met with the appropriate shot, starting when I was just a month old.
However, even if my mother wasn’t heavily involved in the medical community, I would still have received my required immunizations. Why? Because they are in my — and others’ — best interest.
For more than two centuries, vaccines have saved countless people from various diseases such as measles, smallpox, diphtheria and tuberculosis — illnesses responsible for killing millions throughout history.
And yet, many don’t see vaccines as lifesaving drugs. Rather, these individuals, often referred to as anti-vaxxers, believe they instead cause the very thing they are trying to prevent — sickness.
Olivia Heersink | Argonaut
For 2019, the World Health Organization ranked vaccine hesitancy as one of the world’s top 10 health threats — a major cause of alarm.
“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of children who are unvaccinated has quadrupled since 2001, even though the overall utilization of most vaccines remains high,” The New York Times reports. “More than 100,000 American infants and toddlers have received no vaccines whatsoever, and millions more have received only some crucial shots.”
While disease rates are currently low in the U.S. despite the lack of immunizations, if we let ourselves become vulnerable by not vaccinating, then the number of illnesses will rise exponentially, especially those that were once thought to have been eradicated.
In Idaho, children are required to received certain vaccines — such as mumps and tetanus — before they can attend public, private and parochial schools.
But state law does unfortunately allow a parent or guardian to claim an immunization exemption for their child for medical, religious or other reasons This needs to change.
The opposition often claims these medicines can also cause autism, but there is no scientific evidence of this.
Before a vaccine is approved and given to anyone, it is tested extensively. Serious side effects are also extremely rare. No medical professional would administer — or advocate for — them if they were dangerous.
“CDC (officials) estimate that vaccinations will prevent more than 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths among children born in the last 20 years,” according to the website.
People must realize immunizations aren’t just for children. Adults can be at risk for vaccine-preventable disease because of age, job, lifestyle, travel or health conditions.
The only way to change the negative rhetoric surrounding vaccines is through education. When people come across anti-vaxxers, they need to speak up and provide them with the proper information.
Granted, no one loves a needle in their arm, including myself. But I’d rather endure a small amount of discomfort than a painful, possibly deadly disease, such as polio, cervical cancer or meningitis.
Although there is a small percentage of people who are allergic to specific vaccines or can’t be vaccinated because of compromised immune systems, most individuals are perfectly fine.
Unless you truly can’t, there is absolutely no reason not to get vaccinated and it’s irresponsible to do otherwise — it’s not just your health on the line, it’s the health of those around you.
Olivia Heersink can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @heersinkolivia