Reasons to Vaccinate

Due to the pandemic, vaccines have been at the forefront of the conversation more than ever before. As of March 2022, there have been more than 950,000 COVID-related deaths in the United States. However, vaccines aren't just about the coronavirus. More than 50,000 adults die from vaccine-preventable diseases annually—and that was before the age of COVID.

Vaccinations help keep you safe from conditions such as shingles, the flu and cancer-causing infections like HPV and hepatitis B. Flu vaccinations alone reduce hospital ICU admission risk by 26% and death by 31%. Yet there were 34,157 flu-related deaths in America between 2017 and 2018.

Besides, we have more than just the life-threatening aspects of disease to consider. There's a reason we use the phrase "I cannot afford to get sick right now." Illness costs time and money. According to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, treatment for vaccine-preventable diseases cost $10 billion per year. On average, we miss five to six work or school days when we contract the flu. Hepatitis A patients miss a month of work on average.

If protecting yourself and your wallet isn't enough motivation, consider the health of those around you who are at risk, such as children. For example, there are as many as 50,000 cases of pertussis (whooping cough) in the U.S. annually. Since infants are too young to be vaccinated, exposure to an adult with whooping cough can be deadly.

The CDC reports many babies with whooping cough don't cough but stop breathing and turn blue. Half of those babies will end up in the hospital, 1 out of 4 will contract pneumonia, and 2 out of 100 will die. Some children also experience uncontrollable shaking, life-threatening pauses in breathing and brain disease.

Vaccination has been proven safe and effective. Every vaccine goes through a thorough testing process by scientists and healthcare professionals before being administered. While you may feel discomfort at the injection site, serious side effects are infrequent — the most common is an allergic reaction. Extensive reviews have found no link between vaccines and autism or sudden infant death syndrome.

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