We have heard from doctors, politicians, gung-ho protesters, anti-vaccers, pro-vaccers, granola moms, stay-at-home dads, Sanjay Gupta, Christians and atheists, but they are not gods. It’s our generation, so it’s our problem. We decide what’s best for us because we are the ones getting our arms injected.

Recently, the life threatening disease of measles spread across the nation with 102 people from 14 states recorded with the disease this year, according to the The Center of Disease Control. The case supposedly started in Disney World, where unvaccinated people are packed into small spaces in the “happiest” place on earth. Though most of the 102 were unvaccinated, a handful of the people were.

Parents are more concerned with the effects of the vaccination than the chances of their child actually getting diseases like the mumps, polio, influenza and chickenpox. The chances of having an adverse reaction to a vaccination are far less than the chances of dying from not being vaccinated against diseases, according to the American Family Physician, a clinical review journal for
physicians and others in primary care. At one time these diseases, prior to vaccination, were fatal. The CDC reported that after the measles vaccine was legalized, the amount of measles cases went down by hundreds of thousands in 3-4 years.

The measles is a great example of the decrease in cases after the vaccinations, but so is almost every other disease after a vaccination. Death rates go down by large amounts, and the chance of having a reaction is merely a thought compared to the disease that could proliferate across a nation.

Parents are always looking out for their kids. When their newborns are in hospitals getting chemicals pumped into them, for the various deadly diseases threatening infant lives, parents are often terrified. This worry can overshadow what is important in the moment—the infant not dying.

Parents, trust your doctors. They know everything a newborn baby needs. You, unfortunately, didn’t go to school for up to 16 years like your doctor.