This op-ed was written by Carolyn Kylstra, editor-in-chief of SELF Magazine. Read more here.
Vaccines are a remarkable tool for public health.
They can protect against a range of potentially dangerous illnesses, like measles, flu, whooping cough, meningitis, polio, and cancer-causing HPV (to name a few!). The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that vaccination prevents between 2 and 3 million deaths every year. And the really special thing about them is that they don’t just offer protection to the person getting vaccinated. That’s because when enough people get vaccinated it creates herd immunity, making it significantly harder for a vaccine-preventable illness to spread within a community. Herd immunity is amazing because it helps protect those who can’t get vaccinated or who don’t have vaccine protection, like very young babies and people with compromised immune systems.
This is, unfortunately, a timely and important topic. The WHO listed vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten threats to global health in 2019. And this growing trend is becoming increasingly dangerous, with certain vaccine-preventable diseases on the rise—something we’ve witnessed here in the United States with this year’s measles outbreaks.
People who are vaccine hesitant aren’t necessarily completely anti-vaccine—instead for a variety of reasons they’re reluctant to vaccinate themselves or their kids because they aren’t convinced that the benefits outweigh the risks. As a parent, I can relate to the feeling of anxiety about wanting to make sure that everything that goes on, around, near, or in my child is actually safe and in her best interest. I understand why parents have questions, and they should feel empowered to ask those questions. The key is making sure that anyone with questions is getting evidence-based information from trustworthy sources. Because unfortunately there’s a ton of misinformation out there—and it’s putting people at risk.
