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Part the first: herd immunity
Diseases like influenza, measles, mumps, rubella (chicken pox), smallpox and the rest rely on a sizeable population of host bodies (ie us) to live in. They get one host sick, that host gets other hosts sick, and the disease gets to spread.
If, however, the other hosts are unable to catch the disease, the disease can't spread - the herd is immune. This herd immunity holds even if a small percentage of the herd isn't immune - the likelihood that all the non-immune people will catch it is quite low, as long as the chances are low that they'll come into contact with each other during the contagious period.
If there are enough unvaccinated people that they will come into contact with each other, the vaccinated ones remain safe, but a disease (such as whooping cough) can become epidemic through the unvaccinated part of an otherwise immune society.
As an example: Look at a kindergarten or school who allows in children who cannot be vaccinated (such as transplant recipients) but not children who could be, but their parents refuse. This school is relying on herd immunity to protect the transplant recipients from the vaccinated-against diseases.
Part the second: the numbers game
".... yeah, but I've heard about all sorts of adverse reactions to vaccinations. Why should MY child suffer to provide herd immunity to someone else's brat?"
Actually, getting your child immunized protects them a lot more than it seems like on the surface, to a modern person. Let's look at statistics. (Wheee.)
According to the CDC. the vaccine with the greatest percentage of reported 'adverse events' is combined measles/mumps/rubella, at 83.4 reports per million vaccinations. I make that about 0.008%.
Admittedly, this is voluntary reporting, with all the errors that implies. But also, 'adverse reactions' are as mild as a small rash and a bit of itching.
Some people think that autism is linked with vaccinations. According to a report done at the Australian National University, approximately 1% of people are diagnosed with an Autism spectrum disorder.
So if you believe in the autism/vaccination link, there's up to 1.008% of adverse reactions to vaccination. If not, 0.008% (plus non-reporting error).
Now let's look at the percentage of people who got - say - Measles, Mumps &/or Rubella, prior to immunization. And what happened to them.
According to MedTV, "Each year in the United States, there were approximately three to four million cases, and an average of 450 deaths. Epidemic cycles occurred every two to three years. More than half the population had measles by the time they were six years old, and 90 percent had the disease by the time they were 15 years old. However, after the measles vaccine became available, the number of measles cases dropped by 99 percent, and the epidemic cycles diminished drastically."
This continued up to 1962, when the US population was 186,538,000. 2.5% of the population died of measles alone.
Hrm. A 2.5% chance of my kid dying of measles, vs a 0.008% chance of an 'adverse reaction', and maybe a 1% chance of autism spectrum disorder if that hypothesis is correct.
..... anyone care to look up mumps? Rubella? Whooping cough? Polio? The figures are roughly similar. So you're looking at a 2.5% chance of measles killing the kid, and if he survives that, a similar chance of mumps doing it, and if he survives that, whooping cough, and ....
.... and that's just the death figures.
Yeah. If I had kids, they'd damn well be getting immunized. I'm not relying on herd immunity, especially since so many people seem determined to destroy it.
Diseases like influenza, measles, mumps, rubella (chicken pox), smallpox and the rest rely on a sizeable population of host bodies (ie us) to live in. They get one host sick, that host gets other hosts sick, and the disease gets to spread.
If, however, the other hosts are unable to catch the disease, the disease can't spread - the herd is immune. This herd immunity holds even if a small percentage of the herd isn't immune - the likelihood that all the non-immune people will catch it is quite low, as long as the chances are low that they'll come into contact with each other during the contagious period.
If there are enough unvaccinated people that they will come into contact with each other, the vaccinated ones remain safe, but a disease (such as whooping cough) can become epidemic through the unvaccinated part of an otherwise immune society.
As an example: Look at a kindergarten or school who allows in children who cannot be vaccinated (such as transplant recipients) but not children who could be, but their parents refuse. This school is relying on herd immunity to protect the transplant recipients from the vaccinated-against diseases.
Part the second: the numbers game
".... yeah, but I've heard about all sorts of adverse reactions to vaccinations. Why should MY child suffer to provide herd immunity to someone else's brat?"
Actually, getting your child immunized protects them a lot more than it seems like on the surface, to a modern person. Let's look at statistics. (Wheee.)
According to the CDC. the vaccine with the greatest percentage of reported 'adverse events' is combined measles/mumps/rubella, at 83.4 reports per million vaccinations. I make that about 0.008%.
Admittedly, this is voluntary reporting, with all the errors that implies. But also, 'adverse reactions' are as mild as a small rash and a bit of itching.
Some people think that autism is linked with vaccinations. According to a report done at the Australian National University, approximately 1% of people are diagnosed with an Autism spectrum disorder.
So if you believe in the autism/vaccination link, there's up to 1.008% of adverse reactions to vaccination. If not, 0.008% (plus non-reporting error).
Now let's look at the percentage of people who got - say - Measles, Mumps &/or Rubella, prior to immunization. And what happened to them.
According to MedTV, "Each year in the United States, there were approximately three to four million cases, and an average of 450 deaths. Epidemic cycles occurred every two to three years. More than half the population had measles by the time they were six years old, and 90 percent had the disease by the time they were 15 years old. However, after the measles vaccine became available, the number of measles cases dropped by 99 percent, and the epidemic cycles diminished drastically."
This continued up to 1962, when the US population was 186,538,000. 2.5% of the population died of measles alone.
Hrm. A 2.5% chance of my kid dying of measles, vs a 0.008% chance of an 'adverse reaction', and maybe a 1% chance of autism spectrum disorder if that hypothesis is correct.
..... anyone care to look up mumps? Rubella? Whooping cough? Polio? The figures are roughly similar. So you're looking at a 2.5% chance of measles killing the kid, and if he survives that, a similar chance of mumps doing it, and if he survives that, whooping cough, and ....
.... and that's just the death figures.
Yeah. If I had kids, they'd damn well be getting immunized. I'm not relying on herd immunity, especially since so many people seem determined to destroy it.
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