Vaccines, for most families, are a staple in their yearly medical care. Just like checkups and physicals, vaccinations like flu shots aren’t uncommon and do not raise any concern. This is because vaccinations, time and time again, have been proven to only provide advantages for children and those around them. Having vaccinated children also keeps those who have drawbacks in their health and sometimes cannot receive vaccinations. Vaccines should be mandatory for all children in the United States because they are solely beneficial to the entire population’s well-being.     
When a person who is opposed to vaccinations thinks about the effectiveness of them, they might be surprised to how well they really work. According to Healthy Children Magazine, vaccines are, “90-99% effective in preventing disease.” Most degree of effectiveness alone is enough reason to vaccinate a child. Nothing can ever be fully effective, but vaccinations come as close as they possibly can to 100% effectiveness.     
Without modern medicine and vaccinations, diseases like polio and smallpox wouldn’t be problems of the past. The CDC, or Centers for Disease Control, states that, “In the twentieth century, there were 16,316 deaths from polio and 29,004 deaths from smallpox yearly in the United States; in 2012, there were no reported cases of polio or smallpox.” It is important to realize that vaccines work all the time, even when they aren’t being thought about. Eradication of now old diseases is a full time job, and without vaccinations, public health would plummet. The erasure of diseases keeps the world as healthy as it remains today.     
​When vaccinations are brought up in conversation, the supposed other diseases they cause are talked about as well. Although some think that other diseases and ailments such as diabetes and autism are linked and thus caused by common vaccinations, this is a myth. Nancy Shute for NPR stated,  "The MMR vaccine does not cause autism… The MMR and DTaP do not cause Type 1 diabetes. And the killed flu vaccine does not cause Bell’s palsy, and it does not trigger episodes of asthma." This statement has been proven time and time again by scientific studies to be the truth. Vaccinations have only good effects, and none that are detrimental.