Vaccines are an amazing advancement in the world of medicine. Though many of us take our ability to go to the doctor and get a vaccine shot for the flu for granted, we should really appreciate our access to this life saving technology.
Since the early 1800’s, when the English physician Edward Jenner introduced the vaccine to smallpox, there has been harsh criticism and fear from the general public about vaccines. Jenner “infected” an eight-year-old boy with the pus from cowpox blisters. The boy’s body was able to experience a weakened version of cowpox, which was weaker than smallpox. This gave his body the ability to build defenses to each of the two viruses. 
The same general idea is practiced with the vaccines we use today, although they are carefully engineered, rather than extracted from sores. A vaccine is a weakened or dead virus, or an agent that mimics one, that is introduced into the body so that the immune system can build defenses to that virus in advance. Vaccines save thousands of lives each year by preventing the outbreak of diseases that are simple enough to prevent with modern medical technology. New anti-vaccination movements severely endanger not just their participants, but all those  around them. 
First of all, there are a few basic types of vaccines:   Killed Virus These contain killed, but previously alive micro-organisms that have been killed by heat or chemical means. These include the vaccinations for influenza (the flu), cholera, polio, and rabies 
 Attenuated These contain micro-organisms that are still alive, but have been grown in a way that disables their ability to infect their host. Some are viral such as the vaccinations for measles and yellow fever, while others are bacterial like those for typhoid and tuberculosis. 
Toxoid These are made from inactivated toxic compounds rather than micro-organisms. These include vaccinations for tetanus and diphtheria. 
Subunit These involve introducing only part of the genetic material of a virus or bacterial illness, so that the body gets a large enough sample to create an immune response and build antibodies to the virus. These include vaccines for Hepatitis B and human papilloma virus (HPV). 
 Although there have been a number of small groups who oppose vaccinations on moral or religious grounds, a majority of the anti-vaccination movement is credited to the incident in 2007 in which television host Jenny McCarthy claimed that her son had developed autism after receiving a vaccination. Many doctors have stated that his symptoms were more consistent with Landau–Kleffner syndrome, which is often mistaken for autism. 
Either way, the scientific evidence for this level of harm being caused by vaccines just isn’t there. A British doctor named Andrew Wakefield published a medical journal linking vaccinations to autism in 1998, and was stripped of his medical license in 2010 when it was discovered that his claims were fraudulent. 
The words of Jenny McCarthy should not be chastised any less. Of course we should feel a level of sympathy that her son Evan has to live with these symptoms, but her status as a TV personality has allowed her unfounded attack on vaccines to affect a large number of people throughout the country. 
 In 2000, the measles virus was declared gone, but has returned since these movements have sprung up. Also, the rate of pertussis (whooping cough) infections have tripled in some states in the past few years. 
Adults aren’t the only ones being affected. Parents who refuse to allow their children to get vaccinated only put their lives and well-being at risk. In this case, it isn’t good enough to say “to each their own,” this is a serious lapse in judgment that needs to be addressed in the American public. This sudden scare that has sparked the anti-vaccine movement is merely the most recent movement caused by misguided information. These are bound to happen with the speed and lack of accuracy with which information travels through the media and the Internet these days. The important thing is to capitalize on this same quick availability of information to dispel these rumors, especially in cases as serious as this. 
Public health and safety depend on our ability to critically analyze what we’re reading, and not just share it on the next social media venue as if it were a fact.