As a child, everyone remembers having to get vaccinated. My first memorable experience with injections happened when I was four years old. I didn't understand why I needed injections. All I knew was that this pointy thing was going to get stuck in my arm and it was going to hurt. Before I received my four-year-old vaccines, I received my first round of vaccines, vaccines that people now claim are dangerous. Research shows that vaccination rates have fallen. Vaccination rates for mumps, measles and rubella fell from 93.5% to 90.6%, those for tetanus, whooping cough and diphtheria fell from 87.2% to 85.4% in 2009. (Kluger) Why are vaccination rates falling so significantly? Pediatrician Dr. Robert Frenck states that “very eloquent and beautiful movie stars or personalities…give information about the ineffectiveness of vaccines.” People now rely more on blogs, talk shows, and rumor mills for their medical advice. . People now believe that vaccinations cause autism (Kluger). Although there are some legitimate concerns, vaccines are safe because they do not cause autism and have almost eliminated many diseases. Thanks to vaccines, some diseases are no longer a problem. One of these diseases is smallpox. Thanks to measures taken in 1967 by the World Health Organization (WHO), many people who could not afford vaccinations received the smallpox vaccine. More than a billion doses of smallpox vaccine have been administered. Ten years later, in 1977, the last known case of smallpox was reported. This happened in Merka, Somalia, to a hospital cook named Ali Maow Maalin ("Ali Maow Maalin survives last endemic case of smallpox.") Due to vaccines, the number of meningitis cases due to Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) bacteria has increased. ..... middle of paper ......: Autism rumors take a toll | TIME.com Null, Gary and Martin Feldman. “Some concerns about vaccinating children are legitimate.” Should vaccinations be compulsory? Ed. Merino Christmas. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. At issue. Rep. from “Vaccination: an updated analysis of health risks – Part 3”. Townsend Letter: The Examiner of Alternative Medicine 293 (December 2007): 117-120. Opposing viewpoints in context. Internet. November 7, 2013. Offit, Paul A. “The risks of vaccines are outweighed by the risks of not vaccinating. » Should vaccinations be compulsory? Ed. Merino Christmas. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Rpt. from “Common Concerns About Vaccines.” Vaccines: what you need to know. 3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web.Pearson, Cam. “How I gave my son autism.” The revolution of thinking mothers. Np, 02/20/2013. Web. December 8. 2013.