Somehow in recent years a movement that had more or less gone by the wayside has come back full-force. For whatever reason, it’s once again become at least borderline-popular not to vaccinate your children.

Anti-vaccination crowds cite everything from the mercury content in vaccines to the age-old claim that vaccinations cause autism as reasons to avoid them. However, a little research will likely quell whatever fears crop up from the mercury content. And regardless of the fact that the study that linked vaccines to autism is garbage and the doctor who ran the study lost his license, if the thought of an autistic child is really scarier than a child dying of a preventable disease, you should probably take some time to meditate on why exactly that is.

According to the FDA, only five of the 31 available vaccines for children under 6 years of age have even trace amounts of thimerosal, the mercury-containing organic compound found in vaccines.

““Not too many [vaccines] do [use thimerosal] anymore, that’s pretty old school,” said Bradley Fillmore, instructor of Human Anatomy and Physiology. “But, yes there is that risk. Not too many do, because pharmaceuticals know that that’s a dangerous thing and you don’t want to wound your child, that’s where the emotion comes in is, ‘I’m doing this to protect and yet you made my kid even worse.’ That is very rare.”

A short question and answer article on the Center for Disease Control (CDC) website states, “However, since 2001, no new vaccine licensed by FDA for use in children has contained thimerosal as a preservative and all vaccines routinely recommended by CDC for children younger than 6 years of age have been thimerosal-free, or contain only trace amounts of thimerosal, except for some formulations of influenza vaccine.“

The CDC also mentions that since that time there has been no notable decrease in instances of autism in children, “indicating that the cause of autism is not related to a single exposure such as thimerosal.”

However, even if a child were to develop autism, ADHD or any other developmental disorder because of a vaccines, the fact would remain that they would still be alive and unlikely to contract any number of fatal diseases. As a person with ADHD I can honestly say I would much rather have to handle my ADHD than smallpox or measles or death.

“Yeah, there’s risk,” said Fillmore. “There’s been some kids get polio from the polio vaccine. Yeah, one debilitated child is not ok, but the risk of getting it and having my kid guaranteed be a cripple? Yeah, I might play the odds. Everybody has to be informed.”

In the end, vaccines have been around since 1796 and are constantly being improved upon. Even if they aren’t perfect now, even if they’re never perfect, the fact remains that we no longer have to fear dying from diphtheria or typhoid or smallpox or any other disease that was a large concern for our ancestors. To give up on health for fear of autism or some governmental conspiracy or whatever other risk is, to put it simply, pretty stupid.