Vaccinations: to end possible pandemics or not?

Lucky for me, my parents felt comfortable having me vaccinated for many extremely harmful and contagious illnesses when I was little. Additionally, the United States of America had rules in place that protected me from illnesses while I was beginning school as a child, but sometimes you wonder why other people don’t want the same for themselves or their children, especially when exceptionally contagious illnesses like the Measles roll around. Combined with this winter’s flu season, I think we’ve all been running around like crazy to try and stay healthy. 

Source: news.com.au

Above is a picture of the measles virus under a microscope. When spread into public areas by air contamination, it can be incubated for 7-9 days and then cause severe illness and rashes. It is expected to be unpleasant to say the least.

The additional side effect, however, of a disease like this, that no one expects, is the media presence it gets. Viruses become the talk of the world and even sometimes gets coverage over mass casualties or world wide efforts needing support from around the world, and I think it’s simply because everyone assumes the person next to them won’t take care of themselves. So because of that we get swarmed with medications, and advertisements, and use so much hand sanitizer we actually get rid of the good bacteria that helps us fight off germs.

So the next time you’re running around scrambling to get away from the areas of town the media tells you to avoid, you probably should have thought about getting vaccinated to save yourself the worry. Although I am exceptionally wary of the flu vaccination myself, many medical studies can easily spell out safety evaluations for you. 

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School