WASHINGTON (PNN) - September 18, 2016 - A growing number of parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children for various reasons. However, the medical community is criticizing that choice, saying that going without vaccination puts everyone else at risk. Some medical professionals say vaccinations should be mandatory. Vaccines need a majority of the population to be immunized in order to work. Others say that the government - and special interests - cannot tell parents how to take care of their children. According to vaccine proponents, vaccines have largely eradicated devastating diseases from the modern world thanks to the functions of herd immunity. Infectious diseases can be contained if enough people can resist infection. This is done through vaccinations. If the majority is vaccinated, you are less likely to be infected. If you are vaccinated, you are less likely to infect other people. Everyone wins.
Critics of mandatory vaccinations say that it is ultimately a personal choice. It’s their body, or their child’s. No one else should have a say in what happens to it. Adverse reactions do happen, and it is within parents’ rights to protect their children.
People shouldn’t have to blindly trust the government or people tied to special interests. Scientists and politicians have been wrong in the past. Parents - not the government - have the right to make the choice for their children.
