Many people worry about vaccinations, especially for themselves or for their children. However, these fears are typically unfounded as many vaccines are completely safe and can help prevent serious illnesses. There are many different vaccines such as the Pfizer shot, hpv vaccine, fluzone vaccine (a flu vaccine), rabies vaccine, and other mrna vaccines. There are many impacts to skipping or delaying vaccinations such as the following:

1. Increasing disease spread

By skipping or delaying getting a vaccine, the biggest risk is that you will contract a preventable disease. However, if you do catch a preventable disease such as the flu or Covid-19, it is possible that you end up spreading it to others who skipped or delayed a vaccination, or to someone who can’t take the vaccination because they have an existing condition. While you may catch something that doesn’t affect you a lot medically, you never know how someone else may react to a disease especially those who are in a vulnerable population such as children or the elderly. You can become a carrier for disease if you skip or delay a vaccination and can increase the spread of that disease around the population.

2. Increased complications

While vaccines are preventative measures, they can also help you to fight off complications and get less sick if you do contract a disease. A good example of this is the Covid-19 vaccine, while it prevents you from contracting Covid-19 it isn’t 100% effective. However, it does significantly reduce the amount of hospitalizations caused by Covid-19 as less people have serious symptoms if they do catch it. If you want to prevent complications from these preventable diseases it is important not to skip or delay in getting a vaccination when possible.

3. Reducing herd immunity

When you skip vaccination or delay in getting vaccinated you reduce something called herd immunity. Herd immunity is described as a form of indirect protection from contagious diseases. When a large percentage of a population has become immune to an infection, it reduces the likelihood of infection for individuals who lack immunity. When discussing vaccines this means that the more people become immune from a disease from vaccination those who are unable to get vaccinations become less likely to contract that disease. By skipping or delaying a vaccination you reduce the herd immunity for your community.

4. Death from preventable diseases

Another very serious risk of skipping or delaying a vaccine is that you could die of a preventable disease. There are many diseases out there that can result in death that there are vaccines for such as Rotavirus, Bordetella pertussis, and the measles virus. Without a vaccine it is possible you catch a preventable disease and get seriously ill from it and end up hospitalized with complications, or worse, you could end up dying from something that was preventable.

5. Risk of giving disease to those with lowered immunity

If you have people in your life who have a lowered immune system who are unable to be vaccinated, then by not getting vaccinated yourself when you are able to you risk contracting a disease you could give to them. It is also a risk for those you don’t know, since when you contract a disease you can spread it to someone who can spread it to a vulnerable person. If you want to protect the health and lives of those with lowered immunity then it is important not to skip or delay in getting vaccinations when you can.

Vaccines are typically approved by the government before being released to the public. You can tell how long a vaccine has been around by looking for its approval date, such as Pfizer’s approval date in December 2021. However, no matter how new a vaccine is, you can trust that once it is approved it is safe to take, as a ton of research and time went into studying it before it is released into the public.