With the recent outbreak, more than 100 cases of measles have been reported in the United States.

That is 100 too many, in my opinion.

The main reason for these cases? People not getting vaccinated for measles.

There is absolutely no reason, besides those who have immunosuppressant diseases or are under age one, to not get vaccinated. Neither costs nor fear are acceptable excuses. Getting vaccinated is vital to your health and the community’s health.

Naysayers will argue that they have never gotten a vaccine and have never gotten sick. Those people are extremely lucky, but it isn’t all about protecting yourself. Vaccines protect others from diseases as well.

Those who are immunosuppressant or have to take immunosuppressant drugs rely heavily on a concept called community immunity, or herd immunity. This means that because a majority of people have been vaccinated, someone who cannot get vaccines is protected.

This means a parent has to trustthat other parents are vaccinating their children and won’t expose their immunosuppressant child to diseases.

It takes a lot of trust.

Another example would be for children who have peanut allergies. The child’s parents will expect that the classroom remains peanut free.

To protect children from getting preventable diseases, there should be classrooms that are unvaccinated free.

Or people could just get themselves and their kids vaccinated.

I know most of the students at Wayne State College don’t have kids, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t important to everyone. Even with the vaccine, there is slight chance that you could get the disease from someone who is unvaccinated. The more unvaccinated people there are in a community, the higher the risk that an outbreak could occur.

If you haven’t gotten both doses of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine, then get yourself to the doctor and have a conversation about getting the vaccine.

One of the main reasons why people don’t get is because they are too expensive without health insurance. I know for some situations it could be the difference between having food or getting vaccinated. In most situations, however, getting vaccinated should be the most important investment.

Getting a vaccine is way cheaper than getting treatment for the disease. The average MMR vaccine at a private medical center (hospitals, family practices, etc.) is about $56 without health insurance.

The Vaccines for Children program gives vaccines for children under age 19 if they qualify for Medicaid. For adults, go to healthcare. gov for information.

One of the other reasons people aren’t getting vaccinated is because of fear of what could possibly happen from the vaccines. For allergies, less than one out of one million suffer an allergic reaction. It is extremely rare to have severe negative side effects of a vaccine.

The crackpots who started the whole “vaccines cause autism” scare base their argument from Andrew Wakefield, who lost his medical license due to dishonesty in his research. Wakefield was a British doctor who claimed that the MMR vaccine caused autism in children. However, the General Medical Council found 3 charges of lying and about 12 charges of abuse towards children with mental disorders.

Subsequently, Wakefield is no longer allowed to practice medicine in the UK.

Because of his lies, children primarily in the UK, Ireland and the United States have contracted the measles, mumps or rubella. Children have had serious illnesses or died because of this.

Why allow children and adults to suffer or live in fear of getting a completely preventable disease? It is utterly outrageous.

Don’t contribute to the potential epidemic. Get vaccinated for the protection of yourself and society.