Check out the following quote and attached link about vaccinations. See a little problem with his evaluation?
"The number of exemptions is extremely small in percentage terms and represents just a few thousand of the 3.7 million children entering kindergarten in 2005, the most recent figure available.
But public health officials say it takes only a few people to cause an outbreak that can put large numbers of lives at risk.
“When you choose not to get a vaccine, you’re not just making a choice for yourself, you’re making a choice for the person sitting next to you,” said Dr. Lance Rodewald, director of the CDC’s Immunization Services Division."
1 comment:
The article does not address the epidemiologic question of how can one unvaccinated child create an epidemic amongst a group of vaccinated ones. Computer models could be devised to demonstrate the effects of various numbers of unvaccinated children upon various percentages of vaccinated immune and vaccinated nonimmune children and adults for the various illnesses for which vaccinations have a benefit in reducing the incidence of infectious disease. People fear vaccines because of a lack of data on lifetime risks and benefits that should have been derived from long term (50+ year follow up) clinical trials. These trials were never done, and we will always be left with unanswered questions.
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