Why Do We Vaccinate?

As parents, our number one priority is keeping our children healthy and safe. Making an educated choice about immunizing our children is critical to protecting their health.  Here are 5 key reasons why we choose to immunize our children.

• Immunizations do indeed keep our children healthy.  The vaccine preventable diseases can be very dangerous, and some can have severe lifelong effects or even result in death.  We never know where and when our children will be exposed to diseases.  International travel and commerce makes spreading diseases from country to country as easy as boarding an airplane.
• Immunization results in less children who can become infected with illnesses and spread them to vulnerable members of our community, including children and adults who are immunocompromised (e.g. cancer or leukemia treatment) and cannot receive vaccines, babies who are too young to receive vaccines, pregnant women, and the elderly.
• Experts have studied the short term and long term risks of immunizations as well as the benefits of vaccines and agree that immunizations are safe and are the best choice for the health of our children.
• Through immunization, we will continue to see the elimination of diseases that have had a serious impact on people worldwide.  However, if we stop immunizing for diseases that are rare in the United States, we would surely see a comeback of these diseases.  One such example is polio which is still present in parts of the world that are just a plane ride away.
• We immunize our children in order to protect our future generations.  If we keep immunizing now, parents in the future may be able to trust that diseases like polio and meningitis won’t infect, cripple, or kill children. Immunizations are one of the best ways to put an end to the serious effects of preventable diseases.

Immunization Action Coalition (IAC)

For more than a decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has worked in concert with and provided financial support to IAC for the purpose of educating health professionals about U.S. vaccine recommendations.

Physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals at every level of the immunization community, including both the public and private sectors, rely on many of the following projects in their daily work to increase immunization rates across the lifespan.

IAC’s Video of the Week – Archived videos which highlight current information regarding vaccinations.

Unprotected People Reports – Real-life accounts of people who have suffered or died from vaccine-preventable diseases: compelling personal testimonies, case reports, and articles