Abstract:
Dr. Andrew Wakefield's article on vaccinations and the relation to autism created a huge scare for parents. This scare and worry of having vaccinations cause autism ultimately resulted in many parents not vaccinating their children. Not only is the theory of vaccinations causing autism a hoax, but now all of those unvaccinated children are at risk for serious, deadly diseases and have also put surrounding people at risk, whether or not they are vaccinated. This topic is important to many because it can either save many children from deadly diseases or harm them. This paper will examine the advantages and disadvantages of vaccinations so parents and anyone who is concerned about vaccines can recognize that the health risks of not having your child vaccinated are much higher than the risk of illness if he/she is vaccinated. The retraction of Wakefield's article hopefully was an epiphany for many parents who had been following his research. The ultimate goal is to have vaccinations required in every state for all children who are born, despite religious or personal beliefs. It is for the benefit of everyone in the country, so there are no outbreaks that could have been prevented.
