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Comment by placeybordeaux | Hacker News Reader

Some people are unable to get a vaccine, largely if you are immunocompromised (new born, AIDS, extreme other sickness, immunosuppressors etc). By having a large portion of the population not able to transmit the disease you have herd immunity that protects those that can't get it.

You also reduce the load & cost to our healthcare system.

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>"Some people are unable to get a vaccine, largely if you are immunocompromised (new born, ...)"

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

The baby might be immune. An eleven month old is very likely to be highly vulnerable.

Yes, it seems that vaccination of the mother leads to less protection of the infant. That is why some argue the vaccination age needs to be lowered:

>"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.

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