Vaccines are a miracle; they're fantastic. Anything that makes people hesitate to give their children these vaccines according to the recommended schedule creates risk. Risk for the children who don't get vaccinated and risk for children, some of whom don't have an immune system, so they're benefiting from the fact that the community protection means the disease doesn't get to them.
In the long view, no nation is any healthier than its children.
As a parent, the responsible thing to do - if you love your child - is to vaccinate your child.
Right now I belong to the wonderful organization called The Children's Action Network. The first thing we did was immunize 200,000 children across the country against childhood diseases.
I was a sickly child, contracting tuberculosis at the age of five.
As for mercury, a child will almost certainly get more mercury exposure from her immediate environment than from vaccination. This is true, too, of the aluminum that is often used as an adjuvant in vaccines to intensify the immune response.
Not enough children being vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella because their parents, for whatever reason, have decided that it is voluntary.
