We eradicated smallpox (pretty much). I have no figures (barring the wikipedia article), but I feel like if we managed to do away with a dangerous and nasty disease, and the only thing we did different was the vaccine...
I see your point, that if one person doesn't have the vaccine, surely they'll be okay because no one else has the disease? But in society (much as Modernism and the 'me culture' might tell us otherwise) one can't operate like that because everyone will think they're that one person, and then no one will have the vaccine.
I couldn't have come to Harvard without having gotten my vaccinations. I actually had to get more vaccinations just before I came (such as hep c) because in Britain we don't tend to vaccinate children for all the things Harvard wanted me to be immune to. (Like chicken pox, but I'd had it, so I'd done my own vaccination for that!) We won't house summer school kids (high school kids) or undergrads who don't have them. We can't have a population of 6000+ people living in really tight proximity to each other and risk an outbreak: A) Dangerous, B) Fuck with my (and everyone else's) academic career if classes had to be cancelled, everyone had to go home, etc. (I'm sure Harvard cares more about the former! LOL) Apparently, even chickenpox is bad enough to deserve a vaccine, and that's just annoying for a little bit; hep c, meningitis, mumps, polio... more than annoying.
Can you link to the medical research that says we shouldn't (as a general rule) be vaccinating our children, please? (as you asked everyone to link you to research saying we should...)
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Date: 2008-05-17 02:38 pm (UTC)I see your point, that if one person doesn't have the vaccine, surely they'll be okay because no one else has the disease? But in society (much as Modernism and the 'me culture' might tell us otherwise) one can't operate like that because everyone will think they're that one person, and then no one will have the vaccine.
I couldn't have come to Harvard without having gotten my vaccinations. I actually had to get more vaccinations just before I came (such as hep c) because in Britain we don't tend to vaccinate children for all the things Harvard wanted me to be immune to. (Like chicken pox, but I'd had it, so I'd done my own vaccination for that!) We won't house summer school kids (high school kids) or undergrads who don't have them. We can't have a population of 6000+ people living in really tight proximity to each other and risk an outbreak: A) Dangerous, B) Fuck with my (and everyone else's) academic career if classes had to be cancelled, everyone had to go home, etc. (I'm sure Harvard cares more about the former! LOL) Apparently, even chickenpox is bad enough to deserve a vaccine, and that's just annoying for a little bit; hep c, meningitis, mumps, polio... more than annoying.
Can you link to the medical research that says we shouldn't (as a general rule) be vaccinating our children, please? (as you asked everyone to link you to research saying we should...)