In the last few years, we have been bombarded with so many different opinions and facts about vaccination, that most of us must be utterly confused. Read one newspaper article and you'll go straight down to your surgery to vaccinate your child. Turn on the TV the same day and fear for your child if he ever came near a doctor's needle.
Many of the disease that we are protecting our children against are deadly, some are very serious but not fatal, and others are unpleasant but rarely have serious side effects. The vaccination programme has clearly been a factor in the reduction of the number of cases of childhood disease, but we, as parents are now asking at what price has this been achieved.
Every day we read conclusive arguments from both camps - those for and those who are against vaccinations. Everyday we hear stories of children who allegedly suffer from autism as a result of the mmr jab. At the same time, we read stories of another measles outbreak in some part of the country. What we very rarely see is a breakdown of the number of people who suffered as a result of a vaccine, or of the number of people who suffer serious illness or death by contracting one of the diseases. If we had these figures in front of us, we would see that there is truth in both arguments, but more importantly it would help us, the parents, to weigh up the risks, and then decide whether to vaccinate our children or not. It is not easy as that, of course. There is more to the argument than just numbers. We need to know how effective the vaccines are, what are the supposed side effects, what indeed are the diseases themselves that we are trying to protect against, and how deadly are they.
Written and sourced by Will sussman MA & Laura Sussman MSc ( vacinnations yes or no?)
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