I have occasionally felt a warm smug glow, having being vaccinated properly and thus almost totally immune.
BUT . . .
We are talking about kids.
And even if you are wiling to write off the kids of anti-vaxxers, it is NOT the case that only they are inconvenienced. Some people can’t get the vaccine, or have compromised immune systems. These people could be protected by the “herd immunity” effect that comes when the vaccination rate is in the mid to high 90%s.
Which is annoying AF since most local doctors will give the vaccinations regardless of whether a child has documentation. ICE is apparently intentionally making such outbreaks more likely
BTW the idea that illegal aliens are spreading these diseases is complete and utter nativist bullshit
Of these six diseases, three – measles, mumps, and whooping cough – are vaccine-preventableand have very little to do with immigrants or refugees. Often, they have to do with unvaccinated United States citizens traveling out of the country, getting sick, and coming home to start an outbreak.
Nope. Other children will get it regardless of whether they have been vaccinated. Vaccinations do NOT confer individual immunity. They confer herd immunity. People who have been vaccinated do not catch the particular disease as readily, but they can still catch it. But if enough people are vaccinated, the difference is enough to interfere with, and eventually stop, the transmission of the disease. Measles requires 90-95% vaccination rates for herd immunity to be effective (as it was for many years.)
I would add that virtually every other country in the world, including those with large numbers of refugees or immigrants leaving have better vaccinations rates than we do.
That is not true! Even if you get your kid vaccinated, he can still get the measles. The vaccine does not give individual immunity. Instead, if 90-95% are vaccinated, your child benefits from “herd immunity”.
False. The MMR vaccine is 97% effective against measles, not 100%. In fact, there is one documented case in the Washington outbreak where a child who had been immunized came down with measles.
Worth keeping in mind, as I have posted on another thread, that 3% of a huge number (~97% of the population) is way larger than 100% of a small number (~2% of the population.) It is for this reason that fully vaccinated people always account for some victims in these outbreaks, and occasionally make up a significant portion. Those who do not vaccinate are not just putting their own children at risk. By compromising herd immunity, they are putting everyone’s children at risk. And they honestly do not seem to give a damn.
I was old enough that my elementary school classmates lined up to go to the nurse for the just-approved German measles vaccine. We all got shots with a vaccine gun, which was pretty cool.
I will ask my mom if she remembers if she was offered a chance to opt me out. I doubt it. This was the 1960s and scientists were taking us to the moon–of course the vaccine was the way to go.
I was a nurse in the Pacific Northwest the last time we hit critical mass with anti-Vaxx crap, and it was whooping cough.
I remember this one family coming into the doc’s office I temp’d at. We had to mask up and see them in the car. We couldn’t have them in the office because of how bad it was for our elderly and babies. They had three kids, and the youngest was 2 and ended up in the hospital for a week. None of them were vaccinated. The father was the sole support, and out for a month, and everyone was on ABO’s for ages. Everyone lived, and everyone got vaccinated as a family, which as kind of adorable. They almost lost a kid to that cause.
And now we are on to measles.
For those who choose not to vaccinate, it’s natural selection, the strongest survive weeding out the weakest. Either you win or your loose. I just wonder about those gambling their child’s life…
That’s just it. The parents have already been vaccinated. It is the kids who are the victims and kids who can’t get vaccinated for medical reasons and the kids who were but it didn’t take.
They are not gambling with their own lives they are gambling with their kids lives and the lives of other kids they don’t even know.
And welcoming the return of traditional diseases that will Make America Great Again.
Epidemiologist professor who trains future epidemiologists here. Please allow me to educate you on your misconception:
Individuals have immunity, not populations. An individual with immunity is less likely—possibly 100% less likely—than someone who is not immune to contract the disease. Individual immunity can be acquired through surviving infection, through transmission from the mother in utero and through breast feeding (especially through the mother’s colostrum), and through vaccination.
Populations have herd immunity, not individuals. If a population has herd immunity, a large enough fraction of its members have immunity, and this effectively slows or halts the spread of the disease through the population. Herd immunity can be acquired by a population through a combination of a high enough fraction of individuals surviving infection and a high enough fraction of individuals receiving vaccination. Effective vaccination policies insure high herd immunity via the latter route.
You are welcome.
Same here. The vaccine isn’t perfect. That’s why herd immunity is so important-- it’s like a firebreak around your house. Fire might still get in, but is less likely to spread from house to house to house…
Ideally a measles epidemic should end with a wet sizzle instead of spreading like… wildfire
I disagree with your disagreement, there are a modest collection of ways to be smart, but innumerable ways of being foolish:
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Nice metaphor!
