Diseases such as measles and smallpox have recently outbroken because of many parents deciding that it would be best if their kid does not get a vaccine in case it gives their child a mental disorder. These ridiculous claims need to be silenced, as many people are now suffering from diseases that have been long forgotten about because of the vaccine that was created for them. Measles very recently has been scouring the news because of an outbreak that recently occured in the Philippines. The demand for the vaccine has now skyrocketed because people who were not vaccinated as a child are adults now and understand the consequences of not being vaccinated, and thus have taken action in vaccinating themselves and the future generation. And this measles outbreak started because of kids being vulnerable to the disease from no vaccines. CNN stated in an article that “most of the infections have occurred in children, under age 18, who were unvaccinated. The outbreak includes 43 cases among those who were not immunized, six cases where immunization has not been verified and one case where the person had received a single dose of vaccine.”

Now, it is understandable from a parent’s perspective based on certain articles in the media that tells of the negatives of getting your child vaccinating. They were just born into the world, and you don’t want to risk any form of harm onto their immune system or to their health in any form. In an article written by Chephra McKee, PHD, she states that, “Media that cite problems with components of vaccines (such as thimerosal) and report that vaccines can cause autism, brain damage, or behavioral problems cause parents to be more cautious and have more concerns regarding the safety of vaccines.” But, for over a decade, thimerosal has been removed from vaccines that are given to kids under the age of six so they have extremely low risk of damage to their health. Vaccines are improving every year and the problems on them that the media wrote about many years ago that parents are listening to just aren’t entirely true anymore. With the vaccine being available for measles and with the recent outbreak, many hesitant parents aren’t taking the risk of their child being affected by measles or other diseases, such as whooping cough and smallpox, by biting the bullet by taking their kid to get vaccinated. Vaccines.gov states, “Since 2010, there have been between 10,000 and 50,000 cases of whooping cough each year in the United States and about 10 to 20 babies, many of which were too young to be fully vaccinated, died each year.” With this, many other parents will see the benefits of vaccination and that it is more of a risk to not vaccinate your children then to protect them from diseases in the world. Another big reason to vaccinate your children is that most schools won’t allow your child to attend without being vaccinated for certain diseases. So even if you didn’t want to vaccinate, you won’t be able to enroll your kid into school. Many parents have heard of a study that vaccines have been known to give your child the mental disorder of autism. However, this study along with all the other studies done by the scientists who stated this ridiculous claim had his license as a doctor taken away.

The negatives outweigh the positives if you choose to not vaccinate your children, and the consequences are now just becoming public, when diseases that were basically forgotten have come back. Hopefully this outbreak wakes up some of the hesitant parents who have been holding back from vaccinating their kids, as it will only get worse as more diseases will come forth if vaccines are not given out.