A pediatrician explains about the importance of vaccinations. It's no fun getting shots but pediatrician Dr. John Nagamine says it's imperative that children get immunized.
"I mean they're proven effective, 99 percent effective, it protects against 15 plus life-threatening illnesses, they're available, covered by insurance,” said Nagamine.
The video we are showing happens to be pictures of school age youngsters getting their shots. In fact, vaccination normally takes place much earlier than this.
"Immunizations start in the hospital within the first 24 hours of age, they get the Hepatitis B. And then at one month, at two months the main vaccines start. We start when they're young, very, very young. The young ones are most at risk,” said Nagamine.
In recent years, some parents have expressed concern about particular vaccines.
Dr. Nagamine says none of them should be skipped.
"It's actually not a good idea to skip vaccines. You're leaving your children and other people around at risk for disease,” said Nagamine.
When it comes to immunity, there are some old wives tales that can be damaging to a child's health.
There was a time when, on purpose, mothers would expose their children to others with a particular disease.
"Natural immunity is saying I want my child to get disease. I mean, this is life-threatening. If you survive it, and get through it, then you develop an immunity to it. But it's like rolling the dice,” said Nagamine.
And there are those parents concerned about possible side effects from immunizations.
"There are some but it's very, very rare. I just talked to a family - literally one in a million doses may be a severe reaction. It's so rare. Just driving here in the car is much more risk than the vaccine itself,” said Nagamine.
