The anti-vaccine movement has gained both followers and infamy throughout the years. Many parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children due to the belief that the chemicals in the vaccines will cause harm, autism, or some other ill effect that is somehow worse than contracting measles or polio. But with all the memes and jokes out there about parents who choose not to vaccinate, the subject of vaccination is a serious one that can have serious consequences.
Some proponents of the anti vaccine group seem to believe that modern medicine is some kind of conspiracy, or that a cover up must be taking place. Despite the fact that the whole vaccines-causing-autism thing has been disproved, I'm the type of person who would typically say that people can believe in what they want, even if I don't necessarily agree with it. But this is one of the times that I would make an exception.
Choosing not to vaccinate a child is unfair to the child in question, and to other children who cannot be vaccinated or suffer from poor immune systems and are vulnerable to disease. It is not a personal decision to not vaccinate a child, it is a decision that greatly affects other people. Illnesses which are preventable by vaccines are coming back full force because of this.
Diseases like measles/mumps or whooping cough have come back with a vengeance because not enough people are getting vaccinated against them. It is these diseases that are deadly and dangerous, not the stuff that's inside the vaccine. Polio has paralyzed people, whooping cough continues to kill infants under the age of 1, and measles is still one of the leading causes of vaccine-preventable deaths. The possible side effects of vaccination are nothing compared to the diseases they're meant to prevent. There are no alternatives to vaccines. No oils or foods that can protect a person in the same way.
Herd immunity is a concept which describes how, when a population has a high percentage of people who are vaccinated, it is harder for infectious diseases to spread. If someone had a dangerous disease, it would be hard to spread it in the general population if everyone else is also vaccinated; a concept that is very important in protecting children with naturally weak immune systems that are susceptible to disease.
So please, vaccinate.