| DeadNotSleeping said: Depending where you live, there's no such thing as "mandatory vaccination". All medical procedures in Canada require consent; if the parents refuse to have their children vaccinated then there's nothing anybody in Health Care can do about it. Without a doubt the vaccine has been the most important and effective product of medical science and one of the most beneficial advancements in any scientific field. Bad science, illogic and loud celebrities have raised a lot of unfounded fears regarding vaccines, but the truth is that they are the safest way to protect one's self against infection and the best way to protect entire populations. Adverse reactions are exceptionally rare and usually manifest as a rash or flu-like symptoms. Anyone who believes that vaccines and disorders such as autism have a positive correlation should be taken to task and shown the facts; this might help them protect themselves and their children from a whole slew of nasty illnesses. But there are those who have decided against them for ethical reasons, and while I may disagree with their conclusion, I find that rationale acceptable. Choosing not to be vaccinated for whatever moral reason is one thing. Choosing not to because of bad science is another. If you want my advice, get all your shots as scheduled and be sure to continue receiving them throughout your adult life as recommended. There may not be mandatory vaccination everywhere, but there should be. |
Could not have said it better.
The thing is, by resisting vaccines you're not only putting yourself or your children in danger, but the people around you as well; your community, your country, the world. A certain percentage of immunity is needed in a population to achieve "herd immunity," where epidemics cannot or are extremely unlikely to occur because there are too few vulnerable hosts.
After the MMR vaccine scare in 1998, where is was (falsely) claimed that then vaccine caused autism in children, many parents refused to vaccinate their kids. The result? Immunity levels dropped sharply, and outbreaks of measles and mumps skyrocketed. By 2008, measles had became in the UK again, for the first time since 1994.
Similrly, when religious extremists in Nigeria branded vaccine as a Western ploy to infect their children with HIV or sterilise them, and discouraged parents from vaccinating their children, diseases like polio made a dramatic comeback, ravaging not only Nigeria, but neighbouring countries.
