As many schools begin to demand that pupils be vaccinated, it has become increasingly apparent that there is an active minority which is strongly opposed to the concept. Parents are reluctant to vaccinate their children. I can only speculate as to their true motives, but it requires no speculation to see that a refusal to provide for their children’s well-being is absurdly irresponsible and contradictory to the very goals a parent should seek to attain.

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The primary culprits of this non-vaccination trend are “all natural” hippy parents who want to lead a chemical-free lifestyle. It is disheartening to observe that such people are not only willing but eager to risk the lives of their precious children for the sake of some ill-founded moral ideal, backed by obsolete and inaccurate studies and selfishly assumptive principles.

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These belligerents are often eager to justify their decision to endanger the future of their young on the grounds that “vaccines cause autism”. This justification is completely ungrounded; the English study that presented the idea was laughably unreliable in itself and has been refuted by dozens of academically sound studies. There stands absolutely no doubt that there is no affiliation between vaccines and autism except in the eyes of those blinding cherry-picking for any excuse not to use them.

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The less responsible, yet more realistic, excuse that seems to be common is that “my child doesn’t need a vaccine if all of the other kids have one”.

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While it is technically true that a vaccine is unnecessary if it can be guaranteed that there is not a chance that your child will be exposed to the pathogen, that’s a guarantee most parents cannot reasonably make. Especially considering that an increasing number of parents seem to be selfishly leaning on the assumption that the rest of the populace has been vaccinated.

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As a response, many schools (Penn State Behrend included) have begun to implement mandatory vaccinations. It is unfortunate that our hands have been forced, but there is a very active contingent that necessitates the use of measures such as this. While it may be inconvenient, it is simply the case that vaccines are a necessity, and there are too many who would make the wrong choice if the choice weren’t made for them.