There is no good reason for parents not to immunize their children.

Any year but especially this year. 

There is no immunization for COVID-19. Not yet anyway. But there are plenty of immunizations for other illnesses and diseases to protect the inoculated and the people they meet.

Like wearing a mask protects others, childhood immunizations protect us all.

It is simply irresponsible for parents to refuse immunizations.

August is National Immunization Awareness Month.

With schools scheduled to return next week and in coming weeks, and with many families opting to send children to the classrooms, Georgia Department of Public Health wants Georgians to think about the required school vaccinations.

“Our staff has been and continues to be focused on COVID-19 testing; however, we want to ensure individuals in our community are also up-to-date on needed immunizations,” said Norma Jean Johnson, RN, county nurse manager. “Our goal is more than to keep our children healthy, it’s also to protect them and those around them from vaccine-preventable diseases.”

Safe and effective vaccines are available to protect adults and children alike against potentially life-threatening diseases such as tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, shingles, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chicken pox), according to a statement from the South Health District.

Students born on or after Jan. 1, 2002 and entering the seventh grade need proof of an adolescent pertussis (whooping cough) booster and adolescent meningococcal vaccinations, health officials said.

Every child in a Georgia school system (kindergarten-12th grade), attending a child-care facility or a student of any age entering a Georgia school for the first time is required by law to have a Georgia Immunization Certificate, Form 3231.

A previously announced adjustment to the meningococcal vaccine schedule, set to go into effect July 1, 2020, has been postponed until July 2021. Effective July 1, 2021, children 16 years of age and older, who are entering the 11th grade (including new entrants), must have received one booster dose of the meningococcal conjugate vaccine, unless their initial dose was administered on or after their 16th birthday, according to the South Health District.

Meningococcal disease is a serious bacterial illness that affects the brain and the spinal cord. Meningitis can cause shock, coma and death within hours of the first symptoms. 

To help protect your children and others from meningitis, Georgia law requires students be vaccinated against the disease, unless the child has an exemption.

To be fair, and accurate, there are a few — very few — medical exceptions for immunizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

All states, including Georgia, allow for medical exemptions for vulnerable children that might be more susceptible to serious side effects or reactions.

As we’ve seen in recent months, science is not the friend of conspiracy theorists – though science certainly doesn’t stop people from persistently believing conspiracy theories. 

There is no science whatsoever to support outlandish claims that vaccines are somehow related to infant mortality, autism or other conditions.

Immunizations are safe.

Everyone should be immunized.