Yes, seriously.
And, the final rate was actually 23% this year where it is normally about 50%. When you are talking about hundreds of millions of people, that represents quite a bit less death, loss of productivity and general suffering.
@californiaaa There are plenty of reasons besides convenience for the vaccination of infants. From the cdc-
"Why are these vaccines given at such a young age? Wouldn’t it be safer to wait?
Children are given vaccines at a young age because this is when they are most vulnerable to certain diseases. Newborn babies are immune to some diseases because they have antibodies given to them from their mothers. However, this immunity only lasts a few months. Further, most young children do not have maternal immunity to diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, tetanus, hepatitis B, or Hib. If a child is not vaccinated and is exposed to a disease, the child’s body may not be strong enough to fight the disease.
An infant’s immune system is more than ready to respond to the very small number of weakened and killed infectious agents (antigens) in vaccines. From the time they are born, babies are exposed to thousands of germs and other antigens in the environment and their immune systems are readily able to respond to these large numbers of antigenic stimuli."
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Vaccines/multiplevaccines.html
But we’re beating a dead horse here. These points have been made numerous times.
Most adults in the US have either been exposed to these diseases and survived or have been vaccinated. I’m in my 50’s and I’ve had all the current standard vaccinations except for chicken pox, to which I was exposed as a child.
The vast majority of deaths from communicable diseases among adults are due to influenza and pneumonia in the elderly. Many nursing homes do require their residents to be immunized, although as you know, influenza vaccination is a game of best guesses, as the vaccine has to be developed before the coming year’s most common strains can be pinpointed.
Very few kids die of communicable diseases in the US these days precisely because we vaccinate them. Around the world, in places with less robust vaccination campaigns, or where they have only been recently established, childhood diseases still kill many, many children.
From the World Health Organization:
My mother cut her finger today. She got a tetanus shot at the Urgent Care. She’s 80, and still getting vaccinations.
Hope your mom’s ok, @twoinanddone !
She’s fine, but just wouldn’t stop bleeding so we went to Urgent Care. I don’t do blood very well so leave it to the experts.
Throckmorton, you are shifting the blame of a less-than-effective vaccine to the victim - and there will be victims, even if you force everyone else who isn’t obviously compromised, dying, elderly, too young, etc. More vaccines is not necessarily better or the answer. They have been rising at an exponential rate in the last 30-40 years and kids aren’t more healthy. Why? It might be benign or good for an individual person, or might not, and make his health worse. We already know that mutations occur. Many outbreaks occur in fully vaccinated people. Why? It isn’t because they are vaccine-deficient. Something else is happening. I really want answers, not just to force everyone to do what I think is right. (Your post was difficult to read because you didn’t set my words apart from yours. Confusing.)
The upshot is that you are right that we don’t have all of the original childhood illnesses in full force. We have different ones now, and sicker kids overall with many allergies and other strange neurological and other issues that were not common or even known before. Is this better? I don’t know. I guess it depends upon who you are and what your kids suffered.
Blossom: There was an outbreak of Whooping cough in Vermont a couple of years ago in which 90% were fully vaccinated. Reuters reported that a California outbreak of whooping cough occurred to mostly fully vaccinated kids. It happens, so it is inaccurate to suggest otherwise.
That is really a revolting use of multiple logical fallacies and decreases your credibility.
As if parents who aren’t vaccinating all 69 doses on time starting at birth belongs in the camp with this mentally ill (probably) murderer.
There have always been evil and/or neglectful parents who harmed or did not protect their children from guns, car accidents, even hot cars. That is completely irrelevant to this discussion.
Moving on.
Californiaaa:
It is true that Mississippi is the state of lowest educational attainment in the nation (most years, according to the lists). Who knows.
That may be true in CA, but it’s not true everywhere. Different states have different homeschool laws and many require homeschoolers to vaccinate. Even if you’re in a state that doesn’t require parents to immunize their children, it may not be easy to find a homeschool group that will allow your kids to participate in group activities if they aren’t.
None of this makes sense. Your daughter would not necessarily demonstrate antibodies unless she had been exposed to chicken pox recently. From the CDC: " 2.Laboratory evidence of immunity or laboratory confirmation of disease •Commercial assays can be used to assess disease-induced immunity, but they lack sensitivity to always detect vaccine-induced immunity (i.e., they may yield false-negative results)."
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/surv-manual/chpt17-varicella.html
Elsewhere (Somehow closed out or lost the source) it is stated that natural immunity is not always detected either, just as vaccine immunity is not always detectable. I will see if I can find that again.
Secondly, your child will not get sick in the mere presence of an unvaccinated person, much as the myth is propagated. He can only get sick from a person who IS SICK, or is shedding virus, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated. Your child will not drop over with an illness in the very presence of an unvaccinated person; that unvaccinated person has to HAVE the illness and be transmitting it for your child to get it. You do understand this?
Your vehement assertion that only unvaccinated kids are susceptible to illnesses spread by adults is simply untrue. They may well get it - or not - and so will some percentage of vaccinated kids get ill by exposure. Sometimes the vaccinated kids are spreading it to each other, as several outbreaks have shown.
You do realize disease spread could happen anywhere, anytime, from immigrants. people with atypical immune systems, people shedding virus for various reasons, old people who were exposed to someone a couple of weeks ago but don’t get sick, your grandma, your doctor after rubbing his tie or coat up against sick person after sick person in his office before he gets to you, anyone. Your particular focus on children inside school buildings is misdirected, but common.
I really don’t understand the hysteria if you have done all you can to protect your own children.
This is my only foray into this conversation…here is the US government’s own site for those injured by the vaccines which most here say cause no problems…
http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/index.html
Here is a list of covered injuries
http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/vaccinetable.html
It is a highly underused and under advertised program. Which has lead so some substantial cash reserves…Vaccines and the associated programs are big big business.
@dietz199,
I don’t think anyone would deny that vaccines can carry risk of side effects. The point I would stress is that side effects are usually quite mild and serious vaccine injury is very, very rare.
From the hrsa site (link below):
[Bolding in the quote is mine]
http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/data.html
Some final thoughts from the CDC (“What would happen if we stopped vaccinations?”):
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/whatifstop.htm
Sigh, did you read any portion of the second link?
There’s a link to autism link proceedings. With additional information that in 2003 there was evidence that african american boys immunized before 35 months of age were disproportionately affected.
^ That’s because there’s absolutely NO evidence that vaccines cause autism.
Vaccines don’t cause autism. That study was discredited. Move on already.
From NPR site today:
"In the developing world, meanwhile, estimates are that 1 in 5 children miss routine immunizations, leading to 1.5 million deaths a year from preventable diseases. That point was made in the journal Vaccine, which released a special issue on the topic earlier this week, written by vaccine experts at the World Health Organization.
“Immunization programs must be able to achieve and sustain high vaccine … rates,” says Dr. Philippe Duclos, senior health adviser for WHO’s Immunization, Vaccines and Biological Department and guest editor of the special issue. “Vaccine hesitancy is an increasingly important issue.”"
Spreading lies about vaccines kills children.
Well yes, mathyone, but as long as MY child doesn’t develop AUTISM, who cares?! Besides, we all know Autism is worse than death.
(Dripping in sarcasm.)
Sure, vaccines have risks and side-effects. But getting yourself and your kids vaccinated is for the common good, which is why I repeat that it is unpatriotic to fail to do so. I’m sure there are other countries that require no vaccinations, and those who don’t want to be true Americans should move to one of those countries.