Vaccines are important for everyone’s health not just the person being vaccinated, so when people do not get vaccines, they are hurting themselves and the people around them.

Everyone should get vaccines. They help prevent illness that can be fatal, or potentially lead to other diseases down the road. So, when one parent chooses to skip the chickenpox vaccine there could be an outbreak. For example, in North Carolina on November 19, an anti-vaccine community caused a chickenpox outbreak that resulted in 36 children being diagnosed with chickenpox

Despite common belief vaccines don’t cause autism. This myth originated when a fraudulent publication said that “the combination of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines cause colitis and autism spectrum disorders.” This was eventually proved to be false after many studies. The main cause of autism is mainly birth defects, and autism should not be a reason to avoid vaccines.

Herd immunity is when there is a group of people who all get a flu shot except one person; that one person is now immune to the flu because everyone they are around has the shot. This is not a good reason to skip the flu shots. Just because you think everyone else is getting shots does not mean you should not get one, the disease is originated in birds so you can still get it from a bird or other animal carrying the disease.

Flu shots can be found at CVS, Walgreens and almost all other medical clinics. They can cost anywhere from $22-66.99 depending on where you get them, and many are free with insurance. So why not get a flu shot?