Nick Hughes

Opinion Editor

 

Vaccinate your kids.

It is that simple. Prevent others from getting sick and possibly prevent the death of someone else. That is how serious this is. The number of people who do not want to vaccinate their children has risen over the past few years. This rise, I think, comes from a tide of bogus research studies that try to prove the autism link.

Autism, for those who are not aware, is a social anxiety disorder that impairs social development and interaction. It has been proven by numerous studies that there is no link between autism and the vaccines that contain thimerosal. This is according to the Center for Disease Control by the way. It seems like they would know what they are doing.

The reason that this issue makes me mad is mainly because I myself have autism. Before the DSM-V reclassified it I had Asperger’s Syndrome. I would say that I would prefer to have autism then being dead. Don’t get me wrong, I do not enjoy having social limitations, but it is a lot better than being dead. If my parents didn’t get me vaccinated I could have had a number of deadly diseases. None of which sound like they are fun to have. According to the government’s vaccine website I have been prevented from potentially having the following, Hepatitis A and B, HPV, Measles, Meningococcal, Mumps, Whooping Cough, and Polio to name a few. I am very happy that my parents did this for me.

For those that think that vaccines are not the answer and that there will always be a natural cure for something, you are wrong. While it is true that many natural remedies exist, not all remedies can stop things like whooping cough. I do not know that exact science behind it, but I know this, my doctor told me that without vaccinations a lot more people are going to be sick.

I am not nearly as upset with the people who seek natural cures as I am with those insistent that there is an autism link. That one really gets to me. There was one study done in the nineties that “confirmed” the link, but it has since been debunked several times. The problem here though is that celebrities endorsed the debunked study. Jenny McCarthy being the one I put the most blame on. If it wasn’t for the fact that she said that vaccines caused autism on a talk show, then I think the amount of attention that the so-called link would have received would have been much lower. Then the charity that she had just made things worse. It stirred up the pot and the contents are still sloshing about.

It is, like I said earlier, really easy. Vaccinate your kids. There is no autism link and the only way you should get a pass on not vaccinating your kids is in very extraordinary circumstances. Don’t listen to junk science, listen to your doctor.