(Just posted this on Facebook to a suitable argument)
The issue is that those choosing to not vaccinate are relying on the vaccinated around them to prevent exposure to the disease, thus enjoying the benefits of mass inoculation and avoiding individual risk from vaccination ... but that ideal condition collapses, lethally, when too many people choose it.
Let’s talk measles. I’ll talk fatalities to keep the numbers simple, but other casualties are proportional.
With no mass vaccination, measles has repeatedly killed (!) around 30% of identifiable populations throughout history. MILLIONS DIED.
With mass vaccination, measles has been reduced to a 0.3% fatality rate.
Yes, the vaccine is not completely harmless. <0.0001% of measles vaccinations prove fatal. Horrible when it does happen, yes.
Those choosing to not vaccinate because of the risks of vaccination are seeking to enjoy the benefit of the vaccinated population at large reducing measles fatalities to 0.3% _AND_ avoid being one of those <0.0001% of fatalities caused by vaccination. Best of both worlds ... IF they’re essentially the only ones unvaccinated amid the vaccinated. It’s a VERY attractive position to take.
UNFORTUNATELY ... If the number of those unvaccinated rises to a critical mass - a surprisingly small percentage of the population dissenting plus those immunocompromised by other diseases - the disease can find a vector thru the population and FATALITY RATES EXPLODE BECAUSE PEOPLE CHOSE NOT TO VACCINATE. If you start hanging around like-minded anti-vaccination folks, you are CREATING THE LETHAL DISEASE VECTOR: one kid gets sick, they all get sick (measles is very contagious), many get very sick, and odds are distressingly high that at least one of them will DIE.
The fact is if you had the Measles as a child or were vaccinated against it you will not catch it again, the same with Mumps. That does not mean that your children can not get them
If you walk through an old cemetery you’ll see many graves of infants who died before they were one year old. That doesn’t happen anymore. Diphtheria,Typhus and Pertussis once killed millions. Today they have been practically eradicated. Make sure your children get their shots. We don’t want to go back to the days where we buried so many infants.
Largest recent measles outbreak was in Ohio’s Amish country, where 383 people fell ill after unvaccinated Amish missionaries traveled to the Philippines and returned with the virus.
The Amish.
I’m told that the justification for required union dues is that the unions negotiate for everyone and thus everyone should pay. They even go so far as to claim that anyone not paying union dues are making slaves of the poor union leadership who negotiate for them...
Even if I agree that it is best for mass vaccinations against really bad diseases, the concept of forcing everyone parallels the union argument above as well as opens the doors for government corruption to force ALL vaccinations made by any company big enough to pay off a politician (translation... all of them).
If the vaccination argument is so compelling... make it through education and persuade... not mandate.
“With no mass vaccination, measles has repeatedly killed (!) around 30% of identifiable populations throughout history. MILLIONS DIED.”
According to the CDC’s own data, just prior to the measles vaccine the measles death rate was 1.5/100,000.
Hardly 30%.
Where did you obtain your statistic:
With no mass vaccination, measles has repeatedly killed (!) around 30% of identifiable populations throughout history. MILLIONS DIED.
I lived thru measles before their was a vaccine; I contracted them—a “good case” that did pose some complications, but no way was there a 30% mortality rate...in fact, parents wanted their elementary school aged children to contract them because contracting them as a child was so much easier than as an adult and fewer complications.
Wikipedia lists the mortality rate as follows:
Measles affects about 20 million people a year,[1] primarily in the developing areas of Africa and Asia.[3] It resulted in about 96,000 deaths in 2013 down from 545,000 deaths in 1990.[7] In 1980, the disease is estimated to have caused 2.6 million deaths per year.[3] Before immunization in the United States between three and four million cases occurred a year.[5] Most of those who are infected and who die are less than five years old.[3] The risk of death among those infected is usually 0.2%,[5] but may be up to 10% in those who have malnutrition.
VaxTruth.com says this:
....Also true, however, is that of those 3-4 million cases, only about 450 people died each year from it in the years before the vaccine.
I think facts are really important when discussing science. Can you please source your 30% mortality rate?