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I don't thing the metaphor holds up. If you vaccinate your child, why do you care if other children are vaccinated or not? Your kid is immune...

by Oxryly 16y ago

ars 16y ago
Many vaccines can only be given to older children. Babies can not be vaccinated, and they rely on the fact that everyone around them is vaccinated and can not give them the disease.
skoob 16y ago
I'll just quote Science-Based Medicine (http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=516 http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=516): "The decrease in the number of disease carriers is vital to the prevention of bacterial infections. Vaccines are never 100% effective. Some people are genetically unable to respond to the vaccine, some have immunodeficiencies that preclude receiving vaccines or developing a response to the vaccine, some haven’t gotten around to vaccination or are too young to receive a vaccine. If you vaccinate a large number of people, besides preventing disease in an individual, it helps protect the vulnerable in a population. Vaccines prevent disease propagation." "The vaccine [for whooping cough] is good, but not perfect. Vaccine efficacy is 64% for cases defined by mild cough, 81% for paroxysmal cough, and 95% for severe clinical illness (11). Note the vaccine is good for attenuating the disease, not preventing it entirely."
codyrobbins 16y ago
In addition to the point skoob makes, there are also the considerable economic and societal costs of an epidemic. These costs are borne by the society as a whole, and therefore the society as a whole has a prerogative to minimize contagious epidemics. By your same reasoning, the Holocaust should not matter to you as long as you’re not a Jew or a homosexual. The point is that mass sickness has an appreciable effect on you even if you don’t contract the illness yourself.
- Oxryly 16y ago
  boo Godwin.
hartror 16y ago
This is the most important reason why: http://danamccaffery.com/ http://danamccaffery.com/ This is a pretty famous case in Australia, their baby died of whooping cough which she was too young to be vaccinated against which she caught due to poor vaccination rates in their area. They went public with what happened on national TV which drew the ire of a anti vaccination lobby group called AVN (i refuse to link them) which then pursued them publicly and privately to disprove or retract their statements. The Health Care Complaints Commission is now investigating the AVN for breaches of the health care provider code but as with most government organisations it takes time.

I don't thing the metaphor holds up. If you vaccinate your child, why do you care if other children are vaccinated or not? Your kid is immune...

by Oxryly 16y ago

I don't thing the metaphor holds up. If you vaccinate your child, why do you care if other children are vaccinated or not? Your kid is immune...

ars 16y ago

Many vaccines can only be given to older children. Babies can not be vaccinated, and they rely on the fact that everyone around them is vaccinated and can not give them the disease.

skoob 16y ago

I'll just quote Science-Based Medicine (http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=516 http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=516): "The decrease in the number of disease carriers is vital to the prevention of bacterial infections. Vaccines are never 100% effective. Some people are genetically unable to respond to the vaccine, some have immunodeficiencies that preclude receiving vaccines or developing a response to the vaccine, some haven’t gotten around to vaccination or are too young to receive a vaccine. If you vaccinate a large number of people, besides preventing disease in an individual, it helps protect the vulnerable in a population. Vaccines prevent disease propagation." "The vaccine [for whooping cough] is good, but not perfect. Vaccine efficacy is 64% for cases defined by mild cough, 81% for paroxysmal cough, and 95% for severe clinical illness (11). Note the vaccine is good for attenuating the disease, not preventing it entirely."

codyrobbins 16y ago

In addition to the point skoob makes, there are also the considerable economic and societal costs of an epidemic. These costs are borne by the society as a whole, and therefore the society as a whole has a prerogative to minimize contagious epidemics. By your same reasoning, the Holocaust should not matter to you as long as you’re not a Jew or a homosexual. The point is that mass sickness has an appreciable effect on you even if you don’t contract the illness yourself.

Oxryly 16y ago
boo Godwin.

hartror 16y ago

This is the most important reason why: http://danamccaffery.com/ http://danamccaffery.com/ This is a pretty famous case in Australia, their baby died of whooping cough which she was too young to be vaccinated against which she caught due to poor vaccination rates in their area. They went public with what happened on national TV which drew the ire of a anti vaccination lobby group called AVN (i refuse to link them) which then pursued them publicly and privately to disprove or retract their statements. The Health Care Complaints Commission is now investigating the AVN for breaches of the health care provider code but as with most government organisations it takes time.