Vaccinations

When it comes to deciding whether or not to vaccinate your child, there is no shortage of information on the internet that can steer you in one direction or another. Vaccinations were created to save lives, yet many parents are deciding against vaccinations. It is imperative to the health and well-being of our country that we determine how and why parents are deciding against life-saving vaccines. By identifying and resolving the myths surrounding the safety of vaccines we can ensure parents are making an educated decision based on fact rather than fiction or opinion.
Key factors in a parents’ decision regarding vaccines are the following; trust in their healthcare provider, personal experiences, tradition, and knowledge of diseases. Primarily, research shows that parents rely on the advice given from their health care provider, …show more content…
Publicheath.org provides parents with reliable information and clears up some of these myths. As an example, many parents believe that vaccines lead to autism. In 1997 a “study published by Andrew Wakefield, a British surgeon”, (publichealth.org). The article claimed that the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine was to blame for the spike of autism in children. Parents do not seem to know that this paper was retracted and discredited. The author was stripped of his medical license as well. Another myth that seems to be contributing to a parents’ decision against vaccinations is that since infection rates in the United States are low, their children are not at risk for contracting one of these diseases. This is not the case and as parents continue to decide against vaccinations the disease rate in the U.S will increase. Tourists from around the world visit the U.S possibly bringing diseases with them. If the percentage of vaccinated individuals falls below 95%, preventable diseases like the measles will have a fighting chance of an