Unless a student has an allergic reaction to a vaccine or their religious beliefs go against vaccinations, they are required to have their immunization records up to date to attend school. Vaccines are harmless to most people, and there shouldn’t be any reason not to get vaccinated.

There are a lot of things that students can’t do: most can’t vote, some can’t drive, and even some of our freedom of speech rights aren’t protected while we’re in school, but there is a civic duty that we can uphold as students: getting vaccinated. Being immune to certain viruses is important to the community, and students should take their place in the community seriously. Vaccines should be considered as important as voting or any other civic duty.

Unfortunately some students are unable to be vaccinated as they are allergic to some vaccines, but if everyone else in the school is vaccinated, then there is less of a chance of the virus being contracted in the school. Think of humans as a pack of wolves. There are a few wolves in the pack that are slower and unable to protect themselves. It is the rest of the pack’s job to keep those few wolves from harm. The few wolves are the few students in our school that are unable to get vaccinated for whatever reason. The rest of the students must do their best to protect those few students from the harmful virus by getting vaccinated.

In 1998, a British study concluded that getting vaccines could lead to Autism; this study has been retracted, and the author, Andrew Wakefield, has lost his medical license because of his falsified information. However, false or not, the study terrified many parents. In fact some parents are still worried despite the study being retracted, and the belief that vaccines have a connection to Autism is one of the many reasons why parents are scared to vaccinate their children. There are many studies out there now that disprove any connection between Autism and vaccines, so parents should no longer be afraid, especially because the original study by Wakefield was completely discredited.

A tiny vaccine shot should not be avoided. It takes maybe a minute to get a vaccine, but if a virus is contracted, it’s a long week (more or less) of suffering. Vaccines are a civic duty that have been studied and found harmless by many doctors. There is almost no reason to not get a vaccine. It all comes down to would you rather suffer for a minute or a week.