Within the last decade, more and more people have stopped getting vaccines. This movement follows an ideological belief that vaccines are universally “bad,” despite their known benefits. Amongst the most prominent is the belief that vaccines cause autism. This is just wrong.

Vaccines are either a dead or extremely small sample of a virus, where once placed in the body poses no medical threat to most people, because it is so weak. The only people that are still in danger are immunocompromised. Getting a vaccine teaches the human body how to fend off the virus, and generally prevents someone from catching it. This is because, unlike bacteria, there is no medical method to kill a virus, the immune system must do it (vaccines.gov).

The idea that vaccines cause autism was brought up by Andrew Wakefield, a discredited doctor and he was proven wrong (chop.edu). Nonetheless, ignorant people who seem to enjoy threatening the lives of everybody took his idea and ran off with it. The truth remains, vaccines DO NOT cause autism (autismspeaks.org).

Regarding immunocompromised people, they are at more danger to disease. This is because their immune system is weaker than normal and even a small sample of the virus can infect them. This is where herd immunity comes in, it is the duty of the majority to get vaccinated to, not only protect themselves, but also the people who can’t get the vaccination, or are more susceptible to catching a disease.

In human history, the number one cause of death has been infectious diseases (cdc.gov). In fact, until the invention of modern medicine, becoming infected with a potentially dangerous disease was essentially a death sentence. Nowadays, we can prevent someone from being infected, and yet people still choose not to. It seems incredibly stupid, and that’s because it is. Some people are incredibly stupid. If you choose not to get vaccinated because of a false claim, you are jeopardizing the safety of everyone, and incredibly stupid.