In the United states today vaccinations are required for children by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to go to school and to get into any camps or organizations. The required vaccinations for children are constantly changing and The CDC immunization schedule is being updated. The CDC immunization schedule is a timetable that shows when an individual should get their vaccinations. There is one timetable of immunizations for children under the age of eighteen, and different timetable for adults. The immunizations required for individuals over the age of eighteen are required to apply for a job and to get into college. Immunizations play a huge part in the parents and child(ren)’s life and it is the parent(s) job to decide if the child(ren) will follow The CDC schedule or not. If the parents decide to skip a few immunizations or not follow the schedule at all they can. The way immunizations are set up today they are required for a small child to be accepted into a pre-k or an elementary school (CDC). Without the immunizations from the CDC schedule children will most likely not be accepted into the school. Even though these vaccinations appear to be mandatory to the parent(s) there are many ways to go around it and not get them at all. If an elementary school sends a note home to the parents that the child needs a certain shot before a date the parent can simply sign a piece of paper saying that they do not want it for a variety of reasons including allergies, religion, or simply not wanting the shot. Over the past few years these simple exemption forms have become much easier for parents to obtain and fill out. Although most parents will usually not fill these sheets out and return they are very easy for a parent to obtain one. The current percentage of children vaccinated is usually above 90% percent in most states with a few exemptions (CDC Schedule).  According to CDC the percentage of children that are vaccinated and follow the schedule for vaccinations there are still many parents who make the decision for 0 vaccinations or are picky about which ones their child(ren) receives. If you sign the exemption form with any excuse the child is exempt from the shot. Most parents accept the CDC Schedule with no questions. The parents will simply get their child every vaccine without thinking twice. They do not check the ingredients or the possible side effects; they just get their child the shot. This blind way of getting children vaccinated is very dumb, not reading up on a vaccine before allowing someone to administer it to your child is just irresponsible. The parent should not be waiting for the child to throw up or get a fever. The parent should know exactly what the effects of the shot on the child will be far before arriving to the doctor’s office to receive the shot. They should not be waiting until after the shot is administered and then receive a piece of paper with the side effects and what might happen in the next 2-3 days. Parents blindly vaccinate so often and do not even think twice about. There are many vaccines that are required that are for diseases and illnesses that have well been wiped out. What is the purpose of having a vaccine required for something that you have a less than one percent chance of getting? Just to put your child through some extra pain? If a disease has been wiped out there should not be any vaccinations required for that specific disease but CDC sees it differently. They want to make sure no one ever gets a disease that was wiped out years ago; however, they put a child through a nice amount of pain just to take away an extremely small possibility of getting the disease. If vaccines remain mandatory in the United States, they should not be mandatory but an option to people who have researched them and chose for their children to get them. By making vaccines not mandatory it would make a child’s childhood much happier. When a young child receives a shot from a nurse they usually cry. If you go on line and watch a video of a child having a shot administered to him/her it will make you cringe.

The CDC says that children should receive a pretty high number of vaccines before they turn 18 some should even be received twice a year. There are no children in the world that enjoy receiving mandatory vaccinations. Schools, daycares, and summer camps all back CDC and require children to be up to date on their vaccinations to attend any of these places. Children who are not up to date or exempted from the vaccinations are not allowed to attend or use any of these places. There are very few places that do not require you to be up to date if you are going to be around many other children the same age. One of the biggest mistakes that parents make when it comes to vaccinations is just blindly allowing their child(ren) to be administered as many vaccinations as they please. Having all your vaccinations up to date still does not prevent you from getting a vaccine you are vaccinated from. There is no way to be 100% protected against any disease. When parents simply give their child(ren) every single vaccination without reading about them first they are not properly educating themselves on the matter and are being irresponsible as a parent. It is a parent’s job to research and read up on the ingredients and side effects of a vaccination before going somewhere to have their child vaccinated for each and every shot. A parent has many different decisions to make when it comes to vaccinations. They have to decide if they want their child to get every required vaccination after research, if they want to get a majority of the vaccinations, only one or two, or maybe even none at all. Sa decision to come to one of these conclusions should be made after the parent(s) are well read and researched up on vaccinations their effects and ingredients. A parent(s) should know every in and out of a shot before allowing some to give it to their child(ren). A parent should never let a child(ren) get any shot without researching it first to come to their own decision of whether or not they want their child to have that specific vaccination. There are only a few parents that actually do read up on and thoroughly research a vaccination before making the decision of whether or not their child will receive the shot. One of the biggest problems of having vaccinations made mandatory to children and everyone else is the fact that most people have them administered mindlessly and this is a terrible habit to have. Every decision a person makes whether it be a vaccination or anything else it should be thought out. Making a decision without thinking is just not smart. The way CDC pushes vaccines on the American population is not good, amerricans should be able to choose whether or not they want to get vaccinated or not without getting pushed around and looked at funny for not getting them. There are many people that get vaccinated soley because their school tells them too, or their doctor says so but without the parent research the specific shot the child could have a bad reaction to the shot or may even be allergic to it. The safest way for a child to receive a vaccine is if the parent has thoroughly read all about this vaccine from ingredients to side effects and how long they usually last. If your child(ren) have allergies blindly vaccinating is even more dangerous than normally blindly vaccinating. There are also a decent number of people who read up on the specific shot their child(ren) and know which shots may harm their child so they opt out of them. Another group of people are the people that do not vaccinate because they do not want to read about vaccinations and the pros and cons of them. This is another lazy and uneducated decision that some parents make for their children. Parents should not just not vaccinate their children because they do not want to spend the time reading up on immunizations. Parents should dedicate a few days’ weeks before the birth of the child to decide how they want to follow the CDC schedule or not follow it after reading and researching the topic. If you make a decision to vaccinate or to not vaccinate without researching, you are hurting yourself and your child(ren). A child deserves parents that spend time researching and debating whether or not they want to vaccinate their child. 

I think that vaccinations should not be mandatory in the United States because it forces people to make uneducated decisions whether it be blindly vaccinating, opting 100% out because it is too confusing of randomly picking and choosing which shots to receive. If a parent spends maybe 2-3 hours reading and studying what goes into a vaccination and how they are administered it will make for better parenting and a healthier family. If the parents, choose to not research vaccines at all they are hurting the child and themselves. You cannot just choose to not put time into thinking about whether or not your child will receive vaccinations, that is just wrong. As a parent it is your duty to research and make medical decisions for your child until they are 18 and can think for themselves and make their own medical decisions. It is the parents job to do the best of their ability to research and make the best decision they can on whether or not a child will receive every vaccination, none, or a selection of them. Without thinking about what the child(ren) needs in the vaccination world is bad. You must spend time and work towards making good decisions for your child(ren), so that they can grow up to be healthy and strong. If a parent deprives a child of making good medical decisions for them then the child will not have the best state of health as the grow that they could’ve had if the parents researched and read through the CDC website. For a parent to not read through the CDC website, read the CDC vaccination schedule and research a little on their own then they are leaving the child in a bad place. The entire goal of making medical decisions for your child as they grow up is to make the best possible decision for them that you can at the time, and if you can do better for them down the road then do better for them. Spend time deciding what goes into your child’s body and how it will affect them. If you know your child is allergic to something then do not give them a vaccine containing something they are allergic to, common sense. Make sure every medical decision you make for your child not just vaccines are thought out and made to the best of your ability. If you know there is a better option or alternative for your child take it. Do not waste time on bad decisions or not the best decision for your child. The goal that the parent(s) have for the first 18 years of a child’s life are to make medical decisions for the child because they are not capable of thinking for themselves to make this type of decision. There are no children in this age group that have the mental capacity to think out and decide whether or not they need or do not need a vaccination. The parent must do their research and do what they think is the best thing for their child at that moment in time. If a better vaccine comes out and the parents want it get then get it if not do not get it. Make your decisions for your child wisely and try to give them the healthiest childhood by making educated medical decisions for your child(ren). Sometimes you have to spend a lot of time reading and studying one vaccination so you can decide if you want your child to have it or not, but always remember that if you think your child would be better off without it than sign the exemption form and move on with your life. If you want your child to receive a vaccination that they did not get last or skipped, then go get it. If you go back and do more research and figure out that getting your child a vaccine they missed then you can always go back and get it; but if you get the vaccine you cannot undo it. So think wisely every time you go to make a medical decision for your child(ren). It does not take that much work to get online and read a few articles to find out whether or not you want your child to have a certain vaccine. If it does not look good to you as a parent, skip it, do not get that vaccine. If you find out later that there was a better option for your child, then go back and fix the decision by getting the required vaccination. Without spending time making your child’s medical decisions there would be bad decisions that you would make. If you want to change your mind later on do it and continue with making smart decisions for your child.

In conclusion you need to spend time thinking about what medical decisions you want to make for your child in the area of vaccinations. Vaccines have interesting ingredients and chemicals in them and if you do not know if could have a harmful effect on your child than you should look up the effects and after effects of getting the vaccine. Children ae pretty fragile at first so you have to think about how often you want them to get a shot. If there is a better option, then the last decision you made for your child(ren) then go back and fixit. A parent plays the biggest role in a child’s medical world. The parent approves and disapproves each vaccination individually after researching them. Research before you vaccinate.
