{rant}: vaccinations

I would just like to say how grateful I am for modern medicine. Paisley just received her last bit of vaccinations for awhile and as much as I feel bad for the poor girl when they do the injections, I am so grateful that I will never have to watch my child die slowly of polio, measles, rubella, and so on. What a sad and terrifying thing that must have been for those Mothers that had to endure that! I am so grateful to live in a country where these blessings are readily available and a church that supports and believes in such practices. I cannot for the life of me understand for a second why anyone would choose not to protect their children from such preventable illnesses! Children who have not been vaccinated are still dying in California from Rubella!! That is crazy to me! We knocked out that disease years ago with the vaccine. The most insightful thing that has been said about our generation not vaccinating was from my doctor-he just explained that our parents and grandparents have seen how these children used to die-or how they were left permanently scarred from these illnesses and they had no problem vaccinating! I am scared because I personally know a number of people that choose not to and all it takes is one case of polio to be brought in from another country and they are toast!! And unfortunately its not just from a far away country-it could be Whooping Cough from California or Measles from Salt Lake!! And I love the arguement that I've just had fear drilled into me and that is no reason to do something. Yes it is. I am afraid my kids may get these diseases-but I don't have to be if they are protected from them. It's the same reason I buckle her in when I drive my car. I don't know how you couldn't feel responsible for your childs death if they died of measles because they weren't vaccinated, just like if I didn't put Paisley in her car seat and we got into an accident. I also like to point out that if you ever want your child to be left at a daycare (even the one at my gym), be a doctor, nurse, EMT, or a number of jobs even outside the medical field, or to serve an LDS mission, they must be vaccinated. And I'm grateful for that.