For most children, getting shots is a slightly painful but normal part of growing up; but more parents these days are keeping their kids from the needle, worrying health experts in the process. In eight states, more than one in 20 kindergarteners are skipping some vaccines considered necessary to attend school, according to a study by the Associated Press. About half of all states have seen some sort of rise in the rate of parents asking for vaccine exemptions. Parents skip out on vaccines for a variety of reasons—perhaps the biggest being a reputed link between vaccinations and autism. Most health officials, however, say shots have been proven remarkably safe (if a little painful for the guy getting the needle in his arm), and the only study that allegedly showed the link between autism and vaccines (conducted in the 1990s) has been widely discredited. (USA Today)