[Retric]

Unfortunately, we don't currently bring up the parents of children who die from lack of vaccination on negligent homicide charges in large part because of your line of reasoning. Parents are in no way equipped to make informed decisions about vaccination, and giving them the option is a horribly bad idea.

Globally there is a huge unvaccinated population http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_2729_134/ai_n... all it takes is one passenger to bring something back and suddenly you end up with a large number of dead children. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1291987...

PS: Because it's often local doctors that accept this Anti-Vaccination bullshit small locations often lose their herd immunity. It's one thing to randomly replace 1/100,000 vaccinations with an inert substance it's another for 10+% of the children in a small area to avoid vaccination.

[ghshephard]

I think it's important that you realize I agree with you on the fundamental issues of whether we need to have 100% coverage on vaccinations - that is absolutely my belief, and those who don't think that should be the case, should go visit the third world where there isn't 100% coverage, and see how childhood diseases ravage the population. In the first world, we've gotten uses to a standard of living, sometimes not realizing how it came about (Clean Water, Vaccinations, Public Health Systems) - we take it for granted.

I'm just hoping that while you see how we agree on that topic, that we perhaps should have a little bit more consideration or respect for the role of a parent, in determining what is done to their children, from the perspective of vaccination (and by extension, education, religion).

I'd rather we ensure that all parents vaccinate their children through enlightened understanding of why it's important, rather than because some third-party believes they aren't equipped to make informed decisions about vaccination and doesn't give them the choice. (Excepting, of course, unusual circumstances where you have a pandemic underway and there is immediate and significant threat to the populace from unvaccinated individuals - in that scenario, Civil Health overrides personal choice and you get vaccinated (adults and children) whether you like it or not) - but that's a rare scenario, usually the one at risk from a missing vaccination is the one missing the vaccination.

[Opie_taylor]

If vaccination really works, then it's only the unvaccinated that will be affected.

[Retric]

People are not vaccinated at birth, so even with 100% effective vaccination really young children are still at risk. However, the reality is vaccinations while effective are not perfect so there is are range protection. AKA, Some poeple while at lower risk of infection can still get sick with prolonged exposure.

PS: A fire resistant couch save lives dispute the fact they can still burn in a hot enough fire, the benefit is focused on small ignition sources aka a spark or cigarette not a kiln.

[drstrangevibes]

right so we vaccinate even though theres a low chance of contracting a disease, a significant chance that the vaccination will cause side effects and a chance that it might not work anyway. Makes sense to me!

[Retric]

low chance of contracting a disease

EX: Just the M in MMR prevents ~1/2 million people from getting sick each and every year. The benefit of measles vaccination in preventing illness, disability, and death has been well-documented. The first 20 years of licensed measles vaccination in the U.S. prevented an estimated 52 million cases of the disease, 17,400 cases of mental retardation, and 5,200 deaths.[10] During 1999–2004, a strategy led by the World Health Organization and UNICEF led to improvements in measles vaccination coverage that averted an estimated 1.4 million measles deaths worldwide.[11]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Measles_US_1944-2007_inset...

Vaccinations prevent well over 50,000 deaths per year in the US alone along with a large number of vary serious side effects. On an individual basis the lifetime chance of infection is still higher than you might think and only increases as more people avoid vaccination. If we where talking about an adult taking the risks for themselves that's one things, but we are talking about making the choice for someone else as well increasing the overall risk to society.