When families who have health insurance and can afford whatever medical care is needed for their children are choosing not to have their children vaccinated you have to wonder why. Why would parents choose not to protect their children from possibly deadly diseases? Apparently the fear of a relationship between autism and vaccines has convinced them that it is best not to get their children vaccinated.
Observational evidence has shown that sometimes a child gets vaccinated and shortly afterward autism symptoms are noticed. The cause and effect is understandable, but scientists report that this is more than likely a coincidence of the stages of childhood development coinciding with the vaccinations. Repeated and exhaustive studies have shown no real link between autism and childhood vaccinations.
With nearly all U.S. school systems requiring certain immunizations before children can be enrolled in school this leaves us wondering whether the compliance that is seen in middle to lower income families is due to the regulations and the lack of funding or nonworking parent to home school. Less educated, less wealthy families on Medicaid tend to get their children vaccinated.
Also wealthier families are getting too much of their information from talk shows, blogs and rumors which scare them with vaccination horror stories. When movies stars are talking about not vaccinating their children and talking about how bad vaccinations are, people listen, often ignoring their own doctors’ advice.
The vaccinations that most physicians and schools require include diphtheria, measles, mumps, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough. There are also vaccinations available for chicken pox, flu and other common childhood diseases.
