Recently, you may have heard of an anti-vaccination film being pulled from the Tribeca Film Festival. The film itself is called “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe”, and tries to convince the audience that vaccines cause autism. Andrew Wakefield, a former doctor, wrote and directed the film. Wakefield once performed a study of a dozen children’s reactions to the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines. He concluded that there was a definite link to these vaccines and autism, but his study was retracted and debunked. But was it fair to retract the film from the festival?

In my opinion, it was necessary to retract the film. But first, let’s debunk a few myths you may have heard about vaccines:

1. Yes, according to the CDC, vaccines contain bad chemicals (like msg, thimerosal, antibiotics, etc.) that can cause a person to experience proven adverse side effects, like allergic reactions, fevers, or vomiting. They also contain preservatives. But if you’ve eaten any non-organic foods recently, you’ll find the same chemicals inside them as well. Many chicken products contain msg, fish and high fructose corn syrup can contain mercury (ranging from very small to high levels), and livestock are given antibiotics to promote growth. Since you’re probably not going to stop eating, maybe you should consider keeping your vaccines up to date, as well.
2. Being completely clean and sanitizing everything possible will not keep you safe from illness-causing germs, and will probably be detrimental to your immune system. So if you think you don’t need shots because you’re able to eat food off of your floor, you’re quite mistaken. Building up immunity naturally is what many of us do, but you have to get sick with the illness first. Why chance getting ill with something like meningitis, when you can get a shot that will do it for you?
3. No, vaccines nowadays will NOT infect you with the diseases they’re trying to prevent. There was only one vaccine used (notice that the word is in past tense) in the US that caused people to get ill, and that was the Oral Polio Vaccine (according to publichealth.org). This was decades ago, and there has never been an incident since. You can, however. Experience fevers from vaccines, due to the body fighting off the dead or weakened version of the disease inside of you. But to put it simply, anything foreign put into your body could ignite an immune response.
4. Publichealth.org states that infection rates are low in the US at this time. Our country has “herd immunity” meaning that many of us are immunized, so this will protect those who aren’t. Well, unfortunately, vaccines wear off, and there are people who can’t get certain vaccines (babies, the elderly, and pregnant women), or those who are encouraged to not get them at all (people with weakened immune systems, like people with HIV/AIDS or cancer patients). So why not do your young and old neighbors some favors and keep yourself armed and dangerous with antibodies?

In the end, it’s completely your choice to get vaccinated. Whether it be for religious or personal reasons, your body is your own to make choices for. But it’s NOT okay to tell people to not get vaccinations for false reasons. They save lives, and prevent pandemics. I bet you wouldn’t turn down an Ebola vaccine, would you?