Pro Vaccinations:

The time of year where vaccinations are necessary is coming around again, as well as the discussion of whether they are good or bad. There are a lot of consequences that may come out of vaccines, and there are far more benefits to them.

What needs to be understood is that vaccines will help you or your child. Yes, of course there are side effects to it, but according to The American Academy of Pediatrics, these vaccinations given are 90 percent to 99 percent effective. One of every 20,000 babies dying is bad, but at the same time, these mandatory vaccines saved 732,000 children from death and prevented 322 million from 1996- to 2014. I get that people aren’t going to look at much of this in a statistical way, but I think it would be a good idea to do so. People would realize that getting this vaccination would actually have more benefit for their children in the long run.

Parents argue that they know there can be organic Mercury, Thimerosal, and Aluminum inside these given vaccines, but what people need to realize is that, yes, these things are dangerous and hazardous to our health and our children’s, but they are perfectly okay in small amounts. Children are exposed to more Aluminum found in breast milk compared to the amount found in this vaccine. Paul Offit, MD, notes that children are exposed to more bacteria, viruses, toxins, and other harmful substances in one day of normal activity than are in vaccines.

Personally, I could go on about this, but all that needs to be known is that these vaccinations will definitely do more good for your family than harm. They wouldn’t create a vaccine that would hurt you more than do well. There are always going to be side effects, but that’s the price we all pay for our health.

Madi Curcuro, Opinion Editor

Senior Madi Curcuro is Opinion Editor for the 2014-2015 Colonel. She is on the swim team.

Anti Vaccinations:

In today’s age of advanced medicine, our society is convinced that vaccines are the cure to every little sickness from a simple cold to the contagious bronchitis cough. However, the vaccines that doctors convince children and adults to receive can have harmful side effects that are never mentioned at appointments.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, future side effects from anaphylaxis, a dangerous allergen, include long-term seizures, comas , lowered consciousness, and permanent brain damage. This allergen is found in all vaccines.

The chances of experiencing these vaccine consequences may seem low, but vaccines should not be mandatory if information regarding the ingredients in the medicine is not offered to patients to look over.

The National Vaccine Information Center has also done research that shows that vaccines may cause asthma, autism, diabetes, and learning disabilities. If our immune systems can handle infections naturally, then why take the risk of developing something greater than the flu?

For centuries, vaccines have been injected into the bloodstreams of countless individuals. Making it a law to receive a vaccine may be a little too far. Vaccines are of course a vital part of keeping a society healthy, but more research needs to be conducted to see how safe they really are.

I am not in any means recommending that our society should stop getting shots, but people need to start asking questions in case of any allergens that their children might have. This can help stop any future reactions such as asthma, as mentioned before.

Maybe our society is putting attention on the wrong things, such as the color of a random dress on an internet meme, or what happened at the end of the llama chase in February. Our attention needs to be focused towards the medicine we receive and how it really works.

Megan Brawner, Sports Editor

Junior Megan Brawner is Sports Editor for the 2014-2015 Colonel. She serves as Secretary for the Junior Class, is a lead runner on the track and cross country teams, and takes pictures for Inner Visions and Teen Ink.