Epidemics and vaccinations...

[iris lily]

To play the devil's advocate............it can be a hard decision to make. I, personally, don't trust alot of what the government tells me is safe and what isn't safe. Maybe for the majority of people who get vaccinations, it goes without a hitch. But if you're one of the unfortunate ones who develops bad symptoms right after you've gotten a vaccination, then you are much more concerned.
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Of course. The problem is that it's nearly impossible to know who is going to react.

Yesterday I had my dog immunized with the usual things. He is drug reactive and immune-suppressed. As the dr was sticking him I slapped my forehead and thought: I SHOULD have at least given these inoculations over a period of time. doh. Fortunately, today he is right as rain. Anyway, the rabies inoculation is for the good of the public health, not for his own good, that's for sure.

[CathyA]

I would NEVER get a vaccine that was in it's first couple years of use.......unless people were dropping right and left from the disease.
My DD had chicken pox when she was about 7, and had shingles when she was 23. Fortunately, it was a pretty mild case and we treated it early.
But I still wouldn't get the shingles vaccine.
I think I'm just gun shy. I had a flu vaccine when I was about 45, and it led to all sorts of problems..........some of which I never recovered from. And I feel 99.9% positive it was from that vaccine.
But I have had a tetanus shot since then. That's about the only one I'm willing to take chances on. I might get the pneumonia vaccine when I get older.

[Miss Cellane]

Another angle to the herd immunity is that there are people who can't be vaccinated--they are immuno-suppressed or allergic to the vaccine. These people depend on herd immunity--that is, they depend on the majority of people who can be vaccinated to be vaccinated, as a means of preventing or slowing the spread of disease. The fewer people who are vaccinated, the more those who can't be vaccinated are at risk.

Pretty much everything in life carries a risk. Vaccines save lives, but may also cause complications. Air bags save lives, but can also kill under the right circumstances. Vitamins are necessary for health, but too much of some vitamins can be harmful.

Parents stress out over getting the right crib for their baby, when there were 156 deaths related to cribs in the six years between 1997 and 2002; while they have no problem slinging that same baby into a car seat and venturing out on the highway--and there were 650 children under 12 killed in car accidents in 2011 alone, and an additional 148,000 children under the age of 12 were injured in car accidents.

But cars are familiar and we all think we are great drivers and besides, how will we get around without the car, so it really can't be *that* dangerous. And a new crib or car seat or mini-blinds with safety cords--those are things we can control.

It's the same with immunizations. It is something that parents can control--whether that be to give or deny them to their children. If parents were doing real research and deciding on immunizations, I'd have no problem. But most don't. They vaguely remember hearing something about somebody on the tv saying something about maybe vaccines give your children autism or something worse, so they decide not to vaccinate their kids.

Trusting in herd immunity when so many people don't vaccinate is like trusting all the other drivers on the road to be sober all the time. We'd like to think they are. But they aren't.

[Kestra]

It depends on the disease, my circumstances, and the vaccine. If the disease is potentially fatal and a risk to the general population than yes. So, tetanus, measles (and all the other usual childhood vaccines), rabies (when I had a high chance of exposure), but not chicken pox, not flu vaccine. I have no flu risk factors and have doubts about the safety of a vaccine that is made new each year. I haven't gotten hepatitis vaccines yet, but will if I travel to a place where it's recommended.

It bugs me when people talk about vaccine risk and reactions like that's the only thing that's important. There are big risks associated with just being alive, getting the disease in question, being around unvaccinated people, etc. Any medical procedure has a greater or lesser degree of risk, so that shouldn't be the main deciding factor when one chooses to be vaccinated or not.

[pinkytoe]

I recall being a kid in the early 1960s when it was a rite of passage to come down with measles, mumps and chicken pox. I recall having to stay in bed, eat chicken noodle soup and have my temperature checked often but we got through it. I guess there were bad outcomes for some, but I never heard of any. I also recall a scary incident when dd received one of the mmr vaccinations at age 4. She was diagnosed a week later with something called Guillian Barre (sp?) and she could not walk without her legs crumpling. Correlation likely. She recovered slowly thankfully but makes me glad I don't have to make that decision anymore. I work with new moms though and am floored at the number of vaccinations their little ones are given. I remain conflicted on the issue.

[The Storyteller]

One of the great threats to public health is the disinformation coming out of the anti-vac crowd. Pretty amazing some of the nonsense pseudoscience spouted to no good effect.

[bae]

I recall having to stay in bed, eat chicken noodle soup and have my temperature checked often but we got through it. I guess there were bad outcomes for some, but I never heard of any.

In the 1950s, about 500 people a year died in the USA from measles, with about 500,000 cases a year.

We'd pretty much eliminated measles in the USA. Until the Eloi decided science didn't matter anymore.

[pinkytoe]

My wandering thought processes wonders if epidemics aren't Nature's way of keeping populations in check.

[Alan]

My wandering thought processes wonders if epidemics aren't Nature's way of keeping populations in check.

I doubt that it's intentional, although if so, that old It's Not Nice To Fool Mother Nature commercial comes to mind.
I'm a believer in vaccinations as they provide the greatest good to the vast majority. I also believe individuals should opt out if they have concerns. Call me Mr Live and Let Live.

[KayLR]

To play the devil's advocate............it can be a hard decision to make. I, personally, don't trust alot of what the government tells me is safe and what isn't safe.

On the other hand......we in this country haven't experienced horrible epidemics, except maybe with polio and large numbers of our children haven't died from whooping cough, etc.,.............so we haven't seen how much the vaccinations have helped.

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I'm afraid this is the perspective of many of the unvaccinated and of the parents who are responsible for the unvaccinated children. Distrust.

Having worked for public health for 13 years, I am a big immunization proponent; if you have ever seen the after effects of a child who has suffered whooping cough, you would be a believer, too. Or been in the audience of the Blind Boys who travel singing gospel and telling their stories.

We have a measles concern down here too, as a child traveling from Asia came through the PDX airport and exposed who knows how many people. Our county has had, in the last several years, a couple whooping cough outbreaks.

Herd mentality my a@@...these diseases can be deadly. How great does a herd need to be to create the tipping point of immunity? It amazes me how people will give credence to someone like Jenny McCarthy, an "actress," but not to epidemiologists, physicians and scientists.