Save the children

Just saw this article from the American Academy of Pediatrics and it raises some good points on why we should continue to vaccinate kids. From the article:

If a vaccine works, then you do not “see” the benefit because you cannot see what did not occur (the disease that never happened). They can, however, talk to their grandparents or their great-grandparents about what it was like before we had these miracles — about the pain of not knowing your brother because he died of meningitis when you were a toddler. These personal family testimonials can balance the constant noise that is generated by a very small minority of vaccine deniers, and thereby restore perspective to why we should vaccinate fully and on time.

Unfortunately the seed of doubt has been planted in our collective minds concerning vaccines. We are told they cause autism and ADHD among other things, by uninformed dupes or by evil rotten liars who falsified information for their own gain. But vaccines are good. And they prevent so many bad things from happening. Again, from the American Academy of Pediatrics:

• If not vaccination, then sterility (mumps).



• If not vaccination, then paralysis (pulio).



• If not vaccination, then deafness (pneumococcus, meningococcus, Haemophilus influenzae type b [Hib], rubella).



• If not vaccination, then brain damage (measles, varicella, pertussis).



• If not vaccination, then permanent congenital damage (rubella).



• If not vaccination, then cancer (human papillomavirus, hepatitis B).



• If not vaccination, then death (Hib, pneumococcus, meningococcus, pulio, varicella, measles, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis).

Please don't be stupid - vaccinate your kids and save lives.