If vaccines are so effective why would parents who have vaccinated their children be worried about exposure to children who have not been?
I'm not worried about my kids. They're vaccinated.
I'm not even worried about the kids of those parents that choose to not vaccinate them. They will have todeal with whatever consequences their children may have to face as a result of their decisions.
I worry about the kids who pay with their bodies, their health, and maybe even their lives for their parent's irresponsible (IMHO) decision, and I feel sorry for them because they are the victims of a bad decision..
Then there is the third set of individuals.
The unborn children of unvaccinated mothers.
Those too young to be vaccinated.
Those too sick to be vaccinated.
Those with immunodeficient disorders.
Those undergoing chemotherapy.
Those too old to be vaccinated.
They will suffer the consequences of a choice they didn't get to make.
We as a society, and as the individual members of that society, either believe that life is precious enough to sacrifice a measure of personal freedoms to protect, or that the sacrifice of some innocent lives is a price well worth paying for the right to choose what to do with our own bodies and not vaccinate.
People point out that there is an inherent risk to vaccinations, and that a small percentage of children who receive vaccines have an adverse reaction to the vaccine itself.
That is indeed true.
But the greater the risk to the greater portion of society lies with
not being vaccinated, not with
being vaccinated, so I see the decision to not vaccinate as immoral.
Consider this.
There is an inherent risk involved in wearing a seat belt; tens of thousands have been killed as a direct result of being strapped into a car seat by a seat belt during an accident.
I fully support the idea that it should be your right to decide whether or not to wear that seat belt, because during the course of an automobile accident, the totality of the consequences of your decision to not wear a seat belt will be borne by you, and you alone.
In the case of vaccines, others will be exposed to the (possibly fatal) consequences of your decision to not vaccinate yourself or your children.
That's why I vehemently support vaccinations and the concept of herd immunity.
Ob Facebook yesterday, I posted a a bit of personal data an bout vaccines.
When I was living in Cuba (I was about 5 maybe 8 years old) I feel and suffered a rather deep cut from a piece of metal. My parents did the right thing and took me to the hospital where the attending physician told my parents that I should get be vaccinated against tetanus as a precaution.
I stopped breathing shortly after receiving the shot, and I had to be resuscitated, consequently spending a number of days hospitalized as a result.
I speak from a position of having a very personal experience with the dangers of vaccine, and I thank God that I made it thorough, and that my parents made the difficult choice to vaccinate me in the face of those possible dangers, because I KNOW that their decision was made with my best interest at heart, and in an attempt to protect me from the greater danger that was tetanus.
I went through chicken pox and Mumps and played with kids wearing those braces so many children had to wear after a bout of polio.
I lived in a pre-vaccination campaign Cuba, and it was not pretty.
I vaccinate my kids, and I thank God for the availability of vaccines.
