Looking to travel back in time? Think your head is more fit for a crown than a cap? Well, look no further.

Close that tattered old history textbook. Stop attending those Saturday evening Shakespeare plays. Send that magazine with the pictures of Prince William and Duchess Kate plastered on the cover flying across the room, because you too have the ability to take your petty little commoner status to the next level.

Nike says “just do it”? Well, in this case – just stop vaccinating. It’s that easy!

Vaccines work to stimulate the body’s immune system to produce antibodies that will fight against a certain disease, even though no infection has actually occurred. Vaccines are not only studied thoroughly and carefully by scientists, doctors and the federal government, but they also limit the contraction of illnesses and have the ability to eliminate diseases that centuries ago were deadly. But they’re really nothing special.

If you stop getting vaccinated and trade in your body’s condition of being free from disease – in other words, your health – then you really do have the ability to wear the royal crown. Whopping Cough, Rubeola, the mumps, you name it. Queen (but not so pristine) status has never been this attainable.

Take Queen Elizabeth I. She died from contracting quinsy, a rare complication of tonsillitis that occurs when a collection of pus forms between the tonsils and the throat, causing a lethal bacterial infection. Score!

Or, if a swelling throat isn’t your cup of tea, make a wish upon a star for Rubeola. Edward VI’s dreams came true with this fever-inducing red body rash that eventually led to his unsteady decline and brutal, irrepressible death.

Still not satisfied? Queen Eleanor of Castile snagged quartan fever in the 13th century like it was the last pair of leather boots at a 75 percent-off shoe sale. Luckily, quartan fever is caused by malaria, so you don’t have to worry about not being susceptible to this lethal disease – glad to have dodged that bullet! Possible complications are kidney failure and anemia, while likely symptoms include death, nausea, vomiting, and an added bonus of shaking chills, so you can feel like it’s winter all year long.

All three of these old-world diseases are easily preventable through vaccines, as are the majority of current illnesses, but they are just as easily lethal to the unvaccinated body. The flu killed nearly 200,000 people in October of 1918 alone – now it’s just a week-long illness that keeps us in bed watching Netflix instead of at school. Vaccinated adults who contract whopping cough may just feel fatigued, while unvaccinated babies and children could all too easily die. And though autism isn’t even a deadly disability, the myth that it is caused by vaccines has long since been proven false. So is there any real, justifiable point in backtracking through history? These diseases should be easily preventable, and yet anti-vaxxers are letting them slip through the cracks into modern society again. Why are they willingly making a death wish, and does that make them suicidal or just stupid? Or is there in fact a bright side to their choice – a cherry on top?

No. The cherry on top of this entire controversy is that we live in an age where, with one injection, we are able to save someone’s life. Refusing the help of a vaccine is like refusing a hero. We aren’t invincible, and we certainly aren’t immortal. We’re human.

So, I have three words for the parents who are not vaccinating their children:

Not just do it.

Not just stop vaccinating.

But –

What’s the holdup?

To read more, visit:

“Old World Diseases That Can Still Affect Your Health” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/01/old-world-diseases-health_n_3045403.html

“Four Diseases Making a Comeback Thanks to Anti-Vaxxers” http://time.com/27308/4-diseases-making-a-comeback-thanks-to-anti-vaxxers/