Childhood vaccinations have received a lot of media attention in recent years, and parents continue to wonder whether or not they should vaccinate their children. This topic is a very important question because there seems to be a trend in our society where parents are not vaccinating their children. This then leads to their children becoming more susceptible to unnecessary diseases/viruses that can be prevented with vaccines. Subsequent articles focused on the combination of specific measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines and vaccines containing thimerosal, which has been a speculative cause of autism. This controversial hypothesis means that many parents do not vaccinate their children; this is especially true for many of my friends and family members. They believe vaccines can cause autism, and I want to prove otherwise. The CNN article, “The end of the autism/vaccine debate? made by Rope (2010), explains how Andrew Wakefield suggested that the MMR vaccine could cause autism. In the article, you also learn that a lawyer who went to court on behalf of parents who believed the MMR vaccine caused their child's autism paid Wakefield. Wakefield was caught performing unnecessary painful procedures on children, and in 2010 he was banned from practicing medicine. Unfortunately, this study did far more harm than good. This study scared parents a lot and they refused to vaccinate their children because of it. Doctors are now warning parents that refusing to vaccinate their child is not a risk-free choice and can, in some cases, even have fatal consequences. Looking at the media and its impact on vaccination, the article "Media coverage of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine" and autism... middle of paper ...... protect the health of their child and not to harm them. Additionally, if a parent was unsure about a vaccine, I would recommend that they research the vaccine. Look at the different ingredients that are in them, the side effects, also look at the research that has been done on the different vaccines. The more you know, the more questions you can ask the doctor and the better parents will feel knowing what is being injected into their child. My final recommendation would be to talk to other people and see what their opinions and views are on vaccines. Talk to their parents and see why or why they didn't vaccinate them, also talk to friends who have children and doctors. Getting different opinions from various sources and doing research can help parents feel like they can better understand the vaccine and make the decision whether or not to vaccinate their child..