Dear President of the United States,

     I am writing to you because I am a concerned citizen in the US. I was recently talking with a coworker when she mentioned that because it was not required, she had decided to refrain from immunizing her child. After I asked her how she had come to that decision, it became apparent that she was not only uneducated on the matter, but extremely misinformed by the media and especially by other people. Among her misconceptions were the belief that immunizations cause autism, the belief that immunizations can cause the disease they try to prevent, and the belief that immunizations contain harmful chemicals, all of which are not only unfounded, but have been proven the opposite in lab studies.

     After looking on the internet for proof of what I knew to be true, I found an article by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is a federal agency, linked here: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/tools/parents-guide/parents-guide-part4.html. While this article accurately and completely covers the subject matter, it was buried in many other pages claiming the exact opposite despite the lack of sources or studies. It clearly states that immunizations are not harmful, but it was preceded by an article saying they are harmful. I did manage to find two more notable pages that speak about the lack of danger regarding immunizations by the World Health Organization and even from Publichealth.org, linked here: http://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/initiative/detection/immunization_misconceptions/en/ http://www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/understanding-vaccines/vaccine-myths-debunked/. Once again, these were hard to find and I feel like that fact alone is enough reason to take action.

     The American people need to be educated on vaccines. I think that a public service announcement that uses the points present in the aforementioned articles addressed to the people via television programming will put us on the road to informed decisions regarding vaccinations. I also believe that this education will open the doors to a reform on the requirement of vaccinations for children, collectively keeping American children safer and healthier.