Breathe Easy: To all you in the 'no vaccination' clan....

'Fads’, we just gotta get use to them because they will always be around. Every few years or so we start seeing something that just sticks, whether it be a style, word, group, whatever it is, it is something that more and more people want to be apart of because of the hype. Examples? Sure, gluten free foods- only eating organic foods- the all green lifestyle- love for bell-bottom jeans- the hate for bell-bottom jeans, the list goes on, and on. Granted, these things are perfectly acceptable for people to live by; that’s the thing about our society, we make the rules of how we live. Although many people swear these choices are made based on their own decisions and research, it seems they become more and more common with the level of 'in' they have in society, celebrities ranting and raving about the hot topic, people are bound to jump on the bandwagon, am I right? Hell, if Jennifer Lawrence is saying it’s the right thing to do, a sista just might do it.

Now, the list of 'in' things I just stated is something that I don't mind people becoming a part of. To each there own, if you want to avoid anything with gluten- hell, you may miss out on some tasty foods, but again, that’s a choice YOU make.. And that’s the best part; it only affects YOU. Fad’s that only affect you- more POWER to you. But that’s the problem, sitting right by all these 'no harm fads', there are harmful ones, a particular one causes a rush of anger to flush through my body just from thinking about it. This fad doesn't just affect the person involved; no this impacts the world around them. This is the 'anti vaccine' fad of parents. I just really can't wrap my head around this ridiculous decision, and it personally makes me sick. Lets lay down a few facts for you before I dive into why this makes me so angry- first,

"A vast minority of parents across the country, around 1.8 percent, opt out of vaccines by citing either religious or philosophical reasons. THIS [stupid] decision has had 16 states report cases of measles, making 2013 the second worst year for the disease since 2000. In August, the illness struck 21 people linked to a single Texas megachurch that eschewed vaccinations. And just last week, a new study concluded that vaccine refusals were largely to blame for a 2010 outbreak of whooping cough in California." There is evidence of outbreaks and more illness due to the lack of vaccination.

These statistics should be proof enough for parents to smarten up? Wrong. You have people like Jenny McCarthy and Kristin Cavallari continuing to promote this nonsense (equating autism to vaccination, with no scientific proof… when did people stop listening to science?)

These parents don't understand the harm they are putting into our world- causing outbreaks for a disease that was eliminated by the US, 'measles,' doesn't that say something to them? Doesn't that prove this whole idea of no vaccinations is only hurting our population.

But what pushes my buttons the most in regards to this ridiculous issue; it proves how selfish the human race truly is. It proves that these parents couldn’t care less about the well being of the child sitting across from theirs at lunch. It proves that stubbornness outweighs intelligence, and that the saying ‘ignorance is bliss’ shines all too bright for some.

But why, instead of just rolling my eyes at the uneducated individuals that announce their stance, do I let it hit home? Well, I was born into a family with two immunosuppressed sisters. My sisters were born with Cystic Fibrosis- their immune systems were shot from the beginning of their lives. Pneumonia was going around? You knew they had to endure a hospital stint. As all the rest of the kids were running around the playground, my sisters were missing from that fun excursion. Missing from things became frequent for them, birthday parties, field trips, rehearsals… all because the flu that your child also got- affected them with much more intensity, it reeked havoc inside their bodies. They had to be hooked up to all sorts of IVs as they were contained to a hospital room to stare at the bare walls, pretending the sterile whiteness was a colorful jungle gym so that their imaginations could join the fun events that they were physically unable to.But, when flu season had passed, and their wasn't a 24 hour bug floating around- my sisters jumped back into all of the things young kids should be involved with. Their lives transitioned from being bed ridden, to now active. They even had moments where they forgot about this devastating, incurable disease that lived inside them.

Think about all the other kids who are immunosuppressed, think about the kids who have incurable diseases, or the ones who can't get vaccinated because the vaccination will only cause more suppression towards their already suppressed system- these kids don't want to be locked away in their bedroom once they've been released from the hospital, they want to enjoy their lives with as much freedom as possible. They want to go to school, walk around the hallway as if the word disease had never been invented. Unfortunately, because of the ignorance we live with, they can’t be so worry free. Now they must worry about the children who walk by them, because of the parents who still let there unvaccinated child roam freely around the same hallways as the child with cancer. The selfish decision made by these parents is devastating.

I just read a story of a young cancer patient who contracted the measles while at Disney World due to an unvaccinated child. THIS- I don’t even have to write this blog post, I don’t have to bitch and moan and call these parents selfish, that one little story says enough. But after reading it, I was so angry I just needed to add my two cents.