4 ms·

Am I the only one who doesn't actually care what anti-vaxxers do? It's their purpose of life and happiness. If they want to die from easily preventable disease

Am I the only one who doesn't actually care what anti-vaxxers do? It's their purpose of life and happiness. If they want to die from easily preventable diseases, who am I to tell them otherwise.

mattherman 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity
- paulddraper 7y ago
  Sure. That general principal for any number of partially or fully controllable diseases. But how far does that go? How much can I assert control over general sexual behavior because I want to contain AIDS?
conjectures 7y ago
It's called herd immunity, and they're undermining it.
- ScottFree 7y ago
  Are they, though? I was under the impression anti-vaxxers are a tiny minority of mostly crazy people. Do we have hard numbers of the number of kids not getting vaccinated?
  - teh_klev 7y ago
    Follow the links in the article. For example: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/19/mmr-vaccine-one-in-seven-five-year-olds-in-england-may-not-be-immunised https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/19/mmr-vaccine-... The figures are sourced from Public Health England which is part of the UK Government. Also in the article: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/29/lives-at-risk-from-surge-in-measles-across-europe-experts-warn https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/29/lives-at-ris... Data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed nearly 90,000 cases and 37 deaths were reported across 48 of the 53 countries in the WHO European region in the first six months of 2019. The data is coming from reputable sources. > mostly crazy people Sadly there's plenty of non-crazy parents who've spent far too much time believing the conspiracy theories and rubbish that originated from Andrew Wakefield's[0] bogus claims. I have a friend who's grandchildren haven't yet been vaccinated because their parents believe this rubbish. These are not crazy people. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield
bryanlarsen 7y ago
Ask the parent of a premature baby, or a child on chemotherapy or immuno-compromised in some other fashion. The rage of a mother bear is comparable.
danzig13 7y ago
The problem is that vaccines are not 100% effective even on people that receive them so that group of people could still get the disease and now there is a percentage of people not getting the vaccines at all and creating a greater opportunity for exposure.
perspective1 7y ago
Ignoring the herd immunity benefit for the moment, most anti-vaxxers are making the decision for their innocent kids and not themselves.
- mikelyons 7y ago
  but notice they only do it for their kids out of selfishness
seanhunter 7y ago
The problem is this reduces herd immunity and radically increases risk to people who for medical reasons are at high risk already and can't have vaccines for one reason or another.
verisimilidude 7y ago
They are making these choices on behalf of kids. So it's not just their own life and happiness. As others have already mentioned it also reduces herd immunity that's needed to protect people who cannot get the vaccine for legit medical reasons: allergy, cancer treatment, recent coma, etc.

Am I the only one who doesn't actually care what anti-vaxxers do? It's their purpose of life and happiness. If they want to die from easily preventable diseases, who am I to tell them otherwise.

mattherman 7y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity

paulddraper 7y ago
Sure. That general principal for any number of partially or fully controllable diseases. But how far does that go? How much can I assert control over general sexual behavior because I want to contain AIDS?

conjectures 7y ago

It's called herd immunity, and they're undermining it.

ScottFree 7y ago
Are they, though? I was under the impression anti-vaxxers are a tiny minority of mostly crazy people. Do we have hard numbers of the number of kids not getting vaccinated?
- teh_klev 7y ago
  Follow the links in the article. For example: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/19/mmr-vaccine-one-in-seven-five-year-olds-in-england-may-not-be-immunised https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/19/mmr-vaccine-... The figures are sourced from Public Health England which is part of the UK Government. Also in the article: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/29/lives-at-risk-from-surge-in-measles-across-europe-experts-warn https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/29/lives-at-ris... Data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed nearly 90,000 cases and 37 deaths were reported across 48 of the 53 countries in the WHO European region in the first six months of 2019. The data is coming from reputable sources. > mostly crazy people Sadly there's plenty of non-crazy parents who've spent far too much time believing the conspiracy theories and rubbish that originated from Andrew Wakefield's[0] bogus claims. I have a friend who's grandchildren haven't yet been vaccinated because their parents believe this rubbish. These are not crazy people. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield

bryanlarsen 7y ago

Ask the parent of a premature baby, or a child on chemotherapy or immuno-compromised in some other fashion. The rage of a mother bear is comparable.

danzig13 7y ago

The problem is that vaccines are not 100% effective even on people that receive them so that group of people could still get the disease and now there is a percentage of people not getting the vaccines at all and creating a greater opportunity for exposure.

perspective1 7y ago

Ignoring the herd immunity benefit for the moment, most anti-vaxxers are making the decision for their innocent kids and not themselves.

mikelyons 7y ago
but notice they only do it for their kids out of selfishness

seanhunter 7y ago

The problem is this reduces herd immunity and radically increases risk to people who for medical reasons are at high risk already and can't have vaccines for one reason or another.

verisimilidude 7y ago

They are making these choices on behalf of kids. So it's not just their own life and happiness. As others have already mentioned it also reduces herd immunity that's needed to protect people who cannot get the vaccine for legit medical reasons: allergy, cancer treatment, recent coma, etc.