Doctors want people to be educated about vaccines.
“Vaccination is good and we want people to get vaccinated. A lot of people are very reluctant by nature because they’re afraid it’s going to make them sick and I definitely understand that. We should be cautious and educated about what’s going into our bodies. However, most vaccines don’t make you sick and my overall message is not for parents to be cautious and avoidant. I want them to go to the doctor and show up for vaccines, but if they have questions, rather than people assuming, I want them to talk to their doctor first. That’s what I want people to do.
There are so many myths about vaccines – it’s one of those topics and it’s really important not to perpetuate them but deal strictly with facts. The truth of the matter is that vaccines save lives. Today, we have all these epidemics, but we really shouldn’t. We have vaccines and when people choose not to get vaccinated, it opens up room to get infectious diseases that were once eradicated.
Remember, people can die from the measles and the flu – I don’t know why people don’t think about this. Hundreds of thousands of people get hospitalized every year. People die from it. And while a healthy person says, ‘I’m always healthy. I’m fine,’ well, the next person with a weak immune system or a cancer patient may not be as healthy and if you get sick, you may not be laid out for days, but if you pass it on to another person, they may become deathly ill. And that’s the thing people don’t often think about.”
Before Vaccinating Your Child, Here’s What You Should Know was originally published on blackdoctor.org
