Thank you very much for this interesting and informative article. After our daughter was born last year I was thinking about all this vaccinations which were to come up soon and tried to get us much information as possible. I'm still not 100 % sure if we took the right choice but we are going for the recommended shots here in Japan and maybe later in Germany.
The topic of herd immunity shouldn't be overlooked at all, since some children can't get vaccinated and they rely on the protection they will get through all the other kids who got their shots. Recently more and more families in Germany decided to not get their kids the measles shot anymore, for several reasons we don't need to debate, but the result is that the percentage of vaccinated children fell down below the tipping point and now the measles are having some kind of comeback.
Since it gives those children a chance to avoid some of the worst diseases we shouldn't underestimate the effect of heard immunity.
I'm just a little fish hear but I'm leaving you a big upvote.
The right choice is to get children vaccinated, so you made the right choice. The antivaccination movement was cooked up by lawyers who just wanted reasons to sue people. Lots of money to be made in health, and even more so if you can spread enough disinformation to start a movement.
But surprisingly so many educated people are defending this anti-vax theory these day. Even some of my friends who then became very serious about it. And they always hold up the latest graph and statistic to proof their point and it becomes tough to debate against it.
People are easily manipulated. Regardless of education level. The latest graph and statistic? Well there isn't any data which supports their viewpoints. The publications are all shoddy work, pay for play journals... The major points anti-vaxers tout is have been thoroughly debunked. This is not to say they are without any risk and complication, because they aren't, there are potential complications to ANY medical treatment, but overall the net benefit of vaccination so far outweighs the net downside its not even worth a conversation over.
Well said.
I agree, that's why I keep out arguing about this