Health Benefits Of Vaccinating Children

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As a child, you probably dreaded getting your shots, even though you knew they would help you. Vaccines used to be a normal part of childhood for many people, being as common as skinning your knees during recess or losing a tooth. Today however, many people are opting out of vaccinating their children. They claim that since vaccine preventable disease rates are dropping, their child won’t get it despite being unvaccinated. People also fear that chemicals in vaccines can be harmful, and cause developmental disorders like autism. Almost all states don’t have laws that mandates immunizations, despite the proven benefits of them. Even though some people think vaccines are harmful, they should be required because they prevent health problems, help eradicate diseases, and can even protect others who can’t get vaccinated. …show more content…

This may sound impossible, but something called “herd immunity” exists. Herd immunity works if many people in a community get a vaccine. Because those people can’t get the disease, there are less hosts to spread the disease, so it wouldn't be able to spread to unvaccinated people as easily. Take measles for example. When someone has measles, they can spread the disease to 12-18 people who are unvaccinated. If that person does get vaccinated, they can’t spread the disease to those 12-18 people, and then those people can’t spread the disease either, etc. Herd immunity can help protect people who can’t get vaccines like chemo patients, people who are allergic, or a patient with an autoimmune

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