Americans love freedom. We love having freedoms that are stifled in many other countries. One of those freedoms, we have come to believe, is the right to say “No” to vaccinations.

There are reasons to say “No” — medical situations that make vaccination more dangerous than the protection it offers and religious reasons that find vaccination to be a moral quandary.

But thousands of people in the US today are unvaccinated, convinced that it is their right to defy government recommendations or clinging to unfounded fears about vaccine safety. Others prefer not to line the pockets of big pharmaceutical companies, and use antivaccination as their personal revolution.

Choosing to not vaccinate children is dangerous not only to children who could be protected from debilitating illness and potential death, but to those innocents around them who are unwittingly exposed to an infected person: babies too young for vaccinations, the elderly, and those with suppressed immune systems, for example.

Washington state declared a state of emergency in January due to a measles outbreak that has only continued to snowball. To date, more than 50 cases have been confirmed there for the highly contagious disease — considered eradicated in the US as of 2000. According to a February 7 NPR radio report by Ari Shapiro, nearly all of the cases involve unvaccinated children. His guest, Dr Alan Melnick, noted not only the cost and expended energy as health officials try to rein in the spread, but that the outbreak, in his opinion, was “One hundred percent preventable.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, measles is “so contagious that if one person has it, nine out of ten people of all ages around him or her will become infected…” if unvaccinated.

We are a generation unable to remember an era when lack of protection meant a death sentence for many infected with measles. Between 1953 and 1963, when a measles vaccine became available, 400-500 Americans died of the disease each year. Thousands of others were incapacitated by side effects, including lifelong issues from swelling of the brain.

We also live in an era wherein people regularly travel afar. Travel to other countries, less proactive about vaccination than ours, means that unvaccinated travelers can become carriers of disease, spreading it upon return to other unvaccinated people. Those going abroad may want to check with physicians to confirm they are up to date on vaccinations; those who have opted out may want to reconsider.

Fear of obscure chances of reaction to a vaccine is no excuse for exposing others who, for reasons beyond their control, cannot be protected.

To date, just two cases of measles have been confirmed in our state. It should be zero.

Vaccinate against measles, if not for your sake, as a courtesy to others. It is safe, it is inexpensive, and it is the right thing to do in a growing society. Make this your personal revolution, then put that healthy energy into issues to make real change in the world.