Ivy Tech Community College
Abstract Many diseases that once plagued our world have been put to rest due to the effectiveness of vaccinating healthy children. As long as parents continue to have their children vaccinated, our population will remain untouched from the diseases that have once erased entire countries. Information and education is the only way that parents can begin to understand the importance of properly vaccinating children. Maybe, if the parents that choose not to vaccinate their children were to see statistics in black and white, they might change their minds about having their children vaccinated properly and on time. Relying on the immunity of the vaccinated children to protect their unvaccinated children is not fair to the children who have had to experience the pain of the vaccination or to the parents that take the time to educate themselves on the efficiency and safety of the vaccinations.
The Importance of Childhood Vaccinations
For most people, childhood vaccinations are thought of as general health maintenance. Taking your child in for vaccinations during the first few years of their lives has always been a customary standard in child rearing. In recent years though, childhood vaccinations have become taboo. The stigma that lingers over the link between autism, religion, and childhood vaccinations has become a hot topic amongst the media, the medical world, and parents. With the concerns over new strains of influenza and other common viruses and diseases, the option for childhood vaccinations should not be compulsory, but mandatory. If it were not for childhood vaccinations, cities and towns across the nation and around the world would be overcome by diseases that have been dormant for decades. To prevent a pandemic of this nature and to protect the health of the general population, it is in the best interest to have children vaccinated properly and on the recommended time-mandated
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