A mom whose five-month-old son contracted measles has reminded anti-vaxxers that not vaccinating their children can have a detrimental effect on those around them.

Hearing and seeing how many people don't trust medicine and science in 2019 is truly worrying. Despite overwhelming evidence, millions around the world refuse to acknowledge that climate change is a real thing that threatens us all. However, the biggest headscratcher might well be the anti-vaxxer movement.

Parents refusing to get their children vaccinated against potentially deadly diseases because they have been fooled into believing the vaccinations will do more harm than good. Not only is that not fair on the children of those parents, but also people who are unable to be vaccinated. That latter group relies on something called herd immunity, and a lack of it is the reason we are seeing so many measles outbreaks at the moment.

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Babies under 12 months are too young to receive their first MMR vaccination. That means they rely on those who can be vaccinated to, well, be vaccinated. Sarah Blum recently shared what can happen if we don't incorporate herd immunity. Her five-month-old son recently contracted measles. He had to spend some time in the hospital and has thankfully recovered. However, up until this point, he has spent a fifth of his life with an illness that could have changed him forever.

"Luckily there were no major complications and he is doing okay, but it could have easily been a different turnout," Sarah explained, reports MSN. Sarah's isn't the only case either. A mom in the UK shared a similar case on Facebook earlier this year which resulted in her baby's eyes being swollen shut for four days.

The numbers surrounding reported cases of measles in the US this year are extremely worrying. There have been 704 already in 2019, almost twice as many as the whole of 2018. The New York area, in particular, has been hit hard. So hard that even the mayor has taken to Twitter to remind parents to vaccinate their children. Plus, fines are being issued in the area to those who don't.

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