The great debate between new parents is the decision on whether or not to vaccinate their child, or themselves for that matter. There are some pretty strong points on both sides: what if your child ends up getting the disease that they've received a vaccine for? What if your child catches a disease from a child because they were not vaccinated?

The list goes on; there are reasonable arguments on both sides. People often wonder whether or not this matter is pushed on to society because of the fact that it costs insurance companies significantly less to cover the cost of a vaccination in comparison to the costs of hospital visits, antibiotics, etc. if you do end up getting a disease that could have been prevented through a vaccination.

The major reasons why people choose not to vaccinate are for the fact that they think that a vaccination is overwhelming to the immune system, especially for a child. Maybe this means that kids are getting more shots, but it also means that kids are being protected from many more diseases.

They also call to question whether or not they are truly effective. All of us have heard of the person that got their flu shot and still ended up getting the flu. This can raise obvious concerns; there are only so many justifications for getting the flu after being vaccinated. Do vaccines not work? Do vaccines end up giving you the disease you were trying to prevent in the first place?

With this, people believe that vaccines are just a way for pharmacies to make money. No one can deny that yes, pharmacies do make money off of vaccines, but yet again, every company has to make money somehow.

In the short run, I believe that receiving vaccines all throughout my life has only helped me, but the choice is up to each and every family as to whether or not they decide to vaccinate both their children and themselves.

The best thing to do here is to educate yourself before you make a concrete decision. Do you believe that vaccines are a necessary measure to decrease the amount of disease that both you and your children could come into contact every day? Or, do you believe that vaccines are simply run by companies trying to trick you into believing that you need something in your body in order to make a profit?

The ethics and conventions behind vaccinations are long disputed; it is your choice as to whether you choose to vaccinate!