Stupid question but, isn't this a self-solving problem?
People that get vaccines won't get sick, only the anti-vaxxers will get sick. Anti-vaxxers will either die or be convinced to get vaccines.
What am I missing here?
People that get vaccines won't get sick, only the anti-vaxxers will get sick. Anti-vaxxers will either die or be convinced to get vaccines.
What am I missing here?
Those folks are relatively rare though.
Seems to me that living surrounded by contagion is part of the human condition, and that all of us have the right to take action to protect ourselves (and our children) from that contagion, but no-one has the right to violently force someone else to protect himself.
Herd immunity makes that chance orders of magnitude smaller.
It's not about forcing people to protect themselves. It is about forcing people to not increase the chances of my kids dying of a completely avoidable issue, just because these other people believe in fairies.
Your freedom extends as far as where mine starts.
This is a myth, see my other post here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13656462
PS. Wow, 4th time in this thread (currently ~5% of posts here are spreading this myth...)
>"Since transplacental immunity and waning of maternally derived measles specific antibodies play an important role in determining the optimum age for vaccination of infants against measles..." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10829850
EDIT:
It looks like you may have heard about IgA maternal antibodies, which are not the relevant type here:
>"The vast majority of maternal antibodies are of the IgG isotype. In humans, maternal antibodies are preferentially transferred before birth transplacentally, and in animals of veterinary importance, preferentially through uptake of IgG in the intestine from colostrum within the first 24 h after birth. These passively acquired antibodies enter the bloodstream of offspring and act as a protective shield throughout the body in the same way as actively produced antibodies. Sometimes IgA antibodies contained in breast milk are also referred to as maternal antibodies. However, there are important differences in the action of passively transferred IgG and IgA antibodies. Upon transfer after birth, IgG antibodies are present in the bloodstream of the neonate in a finite amount that declines over time. These IgG antibodies suppress vaccine-induced immune responses. In contrast, IgA antibodies are continuously supplied through breast milk from the mother and protect the gastro-intestinal tract against pathogens without having an effect on the immune response. For the purpose of this review, the term “maternal antibodies” will be used for passively transferred IgG antibodies." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4165321/
You also reduce the load & cost to our healthcare system.
This is wrong. In the case of newborns they do not give the vaccine because the baby is already immune (which interferes with the vaccine):
>"The most important factor affecting the success of measles immunization is the disappearance of maternal anti-measles antibodies." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14604165
>"An increasing proportion of children in the United States will respond to the measles vaccine at younger ages because of lower levels of passively acquired maternal measles antibodies. [...] Our data indicate that, in the future, when virtually all women of child-bearing age will have vaccine-induced immunity, the recommended age for vaccination may be able to be lowered further without diminishing vaccine efficacy" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8545224
This isn't politically acceptable because people harbor a myth about the reason newborns are not vaccinated.
This is a myth, see my other post here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13656462
And it's a problem when people are getting themselves sick because of misinformation.
Also, some people are unable to take the vaccine, and again we rely on herd immunity to protect those people.
By not vaccinating their children anti-vaxxers are not just risking the health of their own children but are risking the health of the wider community.