To Vaccinate or Not To Vaccinate?

Vaccines: an integral part of our society. As students of a public school, vaccines are a requirement which we are all constantly made aware of. Lately, the question of whether or not to vaccinate has become a hot topic among the United States and among our own Martinsville High School.

For senior Leah Fraser, vaccines are still an important part of everyday health. “Doctors approve of it,” Fraser explained. “Even though they’re putting the virus in your body, your body is learning how to fight against it. It makes your immune system, and you as a whole, much stronger.” While a general supporter of vaccinations, Fraser disapproved of getting shots when the vaccinations will cause more harm than good. Sophomore Avril Richardson took a similar stance as Fraser.

Richardson is both for and against vaccines, and argued both points. “I’ve always gotten the flu vaccine,” she said, but she went on to explain how sick she got after catching the flu one year after getting the vaccine. “I had missed a month of school for it, and I had gotten in trouble by my teachers, principals, counselors because I missed so much school, because I got a flu vaccination.” Still, Richardson believed that vaccines can be helpful, and continued to insist that as a parent or guardian, she would demand that the child have their vaccinations. While both Richardson and Fraser believed in at least some instances for having vaccines, junior Sophia Jackson was entirely against vaccinations.

Jackson, who doesn’t believe that vaccines do much to help those who get them, argued that shots are painful and might not even help defend against diseases. “The only circumstance where I could see the other side of it would be if there was a disease that ran in a family, and a child received a vaccination as a preventative measure for a disease that they thought the child was likely to catch,” Jackson explained.

While vaccines continue to be a part of attending public schools, the question remains whether they should be mandatory or not. It may still be a requirement now, but there could be a future in which we are asked to decide for ourselves whether to be vaccinated or not. What choice would you make?