This week taking our son to the doctor for his annual check-up renewed my putting faith in medical science by giving my permission to administer him with three vaccines. I agreed without hesitation but past memories of our child, like all kids and some adults, freaking out to get shots did cross my mind. Giving him my cell phone to play a game worked as a distraction. It’s been a parental decision that we’ve made since he was born over a decade ago when I did much more research about the safety of vaccines. Many of us have heard the reports linking vaccines to autism. Myths about vaccines are discussed on PublicHealth.org.

For many years I did not take a flu vaccine due to my severe egg allergy. I started taking the flu shot about five years ago after new vaccines became available made without eggs as described by the Mayo Clinic.

I just heard a news report from a doctor saying about 50% of the people might not want to take a future vaccine for Covid-19. However, according to InfectionControlToday.org quoting Dr. Paul Ehrmann, “Some diseases, like measles, require as much as 95 percent of the population to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity.”

Apparently, vaccines have worked so well to eradicate diseases that now people especially in developed countries wonder if they are still necessary. According to OurWorldInData.org, “what percentage of the public think vaccines are safe? What share thinks they are ineffective? And what share denies their importance? In this post we present the global data on attitudes to vaccination. Here is a summary of the results:

92% of people in the world think vaccines are important for children to have;

7% of people globally disagree that vaccines are safe. But this differs considerably between different countries: France topped the list with 33% disagreeing;
Globally, 5% of people disagree that vaccines are effective. But skepticism is high in some countries, ranging from 28% in Liberia to less than 1% in Bangladesh and Egypt;
In many countries few people disagree that vaccines are safe and effective, but the share of people who “neither agree nor disagree” can be more than 50%.”

Providing vaccines is a primary mission of CDC and WHO as well as groups like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Let’s hope and pray that new, low cost vaccines become available to fight viruses and other diseases and then we need to trust the medical professionals to accurately tell us the risks and the benefits.