As a nursing student, medicine and health are important subjects to me and my goal is to spend my adult life working to improve the health of my patients and doing whatever I can to promote a healthy lifestyle. In particular, I want to work with infants and young children and assist their parents in making the best possible choices regarding their child's health. Vaccines have saved too many lives to count and they have helped to practically eliminate various infectious and deathly diseases throughout the world and in the United States especially. I was vaccinated as an infant and I have never had a sickness that threatened my life I believe that every child, every person, has the right to a life free from the fear of getting infected with a disease that could have easily been prevented through immunization. I do not have a degree and I am not a doctor or scientist, but I trust science and modern medicine. I am qualified to write about vaccination because I am passionate about the subject and promoting the truth so that children and all people can live healthy lives, safe from as many harms as possible. 

Before one can really form an opinion about an issue, it is important be informed of the facts. An article from healthy children.org and the American Academy of Pediatrics explains just what vaccines are and how they work with the child's immune system. Human bodies are made to fight infections and they do so by making antibodies whenever a foreign organism invades. These antibodies take a while to be effective and in the mean time antigens can cause terrible symptoms. The purpose of a vaccine is to inject a small amount of a weakened virus with dramatically weakened antigens from a specific disease in order for the body to be able to make antibodies that will remain and be ready to attack if the actual disease were ever to invade. The American Academy of Pediatrics has formed a specific child immunization schedule with different vaccines to protect from different diseases. This schedule is important to follow because while a baby does receive some antibodies from their mothers, these do not last and the older the child gets, the more susceptible it becomes. This article did not give credit to one specific author, but rather the entire website and company is credited with this information. These are the basic facts of vaccination presented by doctors who understand the chemistry of vaccines and how the body handles their administration. 

As confidently expressed in the title of Aaron E. Carroll's article in the New York Times, vaccination is simply "not up for debate." Carroll left no room for any argument, immediately stating the facts of the matter -- vaccines are not linked to autism, the number and timing of the shots in the immunization schedule is important, and delaying or omitting any of the shots puts the child and others at risk. Numerous studies have taken the widely misconceived rumor that vaccines can cause autism and have refuted it with strong scientific evidence. Carroll also reiterates the strength of the human immune system, reassuring readers that vaccines are simply not strong enough to overtake the body's natural defense. Aside from the importance of the vaccines themselves, the timing in which they are taken is crucial because the child's immune system becomes more susceptible to disease the longer it waits and delaying any of the shots would provide no benefit, but only increase the risk of infection. Aaron E. Carroll is a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, making him more than qualified to write about this subject and share what he knows to be scientific fact. Not only is Mr. Carroll a credible author, the New York Times is a widely read and respected newspaper, providing up to date information and arguments on the most common debates of the time. 

Blogger Kelley King Heyworth is not just an outsider on the debate of vaccination, but she is a mother who understands the heart of this issue -- parents who want to do what is best for their children, but lack the information they need. In her article she addresses the matter in a manner that seeks to take the concerns and rumors of the debate and refute them with science-based evidence and testimonies from well educated and informed people. The science-supported fact is that vaccination is safe and necessary. Vaccines have tremendously lowered the disease rates of fatal sicknesses such as measles, mumps, pertussis and more. But that does not mean the diseases are eliminated and it surely does not mean that if people stop vaccinating their children that these deathly viruses will not resurface and spread rapidly. The vaccines do not cause autism, its simply a fact that is not debatable and any minuscule risk that vaccines may impose, is nothing compared to the risk a child has of getting a disease like the measles and dying within hours. This issue is serious and the more parents refuse to adhere to vaccination and the specific guidelines the more everyone in society is put at risk. This author is not a scholar or a doctor, but she is a parent who has done research and simply taken into account the facts of the matter in order to present the information so desperately needed to be heard by any and all people who will one day have to decide whether or not they will vaccinate their own children.

This debate has two clear sides, with each side having dimensions to its argument. Most of the articles I have looked at have strongly agreed that vaccines do not cause autism and that they are safe, with different information providing reasoning and evidence. The different perspectives that I have considered so far have actually strengthened my belief in and support of infant immunization.  I have not looked deep into the opposing arguments, but I may need to do that in order to restructure my research question in a way that will allow me to better answer with evidence from both sides and be able to logically and strongly refute the arguments that support vaccination.

