Vaccination Versus Autism

There has been a long standing controversy around the whole issue of vaccinating our children. Some argue that vaccines are the leading cause of autism even though there has been no scientific grounds for the claim. In fact, the Autism Science Foundation has done studies with children receiving vaccines versus those who do not, and they found no difference in the neurological development of these children.

The controversy over vaccination has been there since the first vaccines for smallpox. Throughout history, vaccines have become feared as well as coveted.  Today, vaccines keep not only the child receiving them but the entire community from developing epidemics of childhood diseases. It just takes a few unvaccinated children to start an epidemic which seriously effects young children and the elderly.

When we talk about polio, influenza, measles, we take for granted that children in the US will never develop these life-threatening illnesses. And, we take them for granted because we have never had to deal with them in our lifetime.

So, children entering kindergarten must have documentation of vaccination, but there are loopholes such as religious beliefs, personal beliefs and medical illness such as cancer and other immune deficient diseases. The question is then, do we make vaccinations compulsory for everyone with the exception of those with medical illness? And, how would we enforce it? There are many more questions that have to be answered. Please post here, your views on this topic.