Social Obligations & Immunization

[vivant]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

And one other thing also, if you think the risk of catching the disease is lower than the risks associated with the immunisation, why do you think that is?

It's because a few generations ago the risks of catching the disease were far higher than the risks associated with immunisation.

What that means for those people now considering not immunising their children is that they're going to send society back to the times when parents lived in fear of their healthy child being stuck down by some terrible disease, only now they'll have the guilt of knowing they could have prevented it.

The obvious retort here goes back to "Herd Mentality" ... so long as you have faith in your immunizations, and maintain a majority of the population then "society" won't go back to those times, only those people who choose not to immunize will/may succumb to said terrible diseases.

But I think that is a bullshit answer, so I'll retort with this instead:

How did people survive disease and outbreak before the advent of popular immunization? The weak died; they always do whether it's disease. poverty. internet forums. The strong survived, and became naturally immune. They then passed these natural immunities down to their descendants via genes, and even through social behaviors such as breastfeeding.

Statistically, a "healthy child" would survive a "terrible disease" ... a weak child (whether recognized as such, or not) would not. This is true even within the immunized population; side effects DO happen, however statistically minute you desire to present them as. (I don't care either way, as it isn't my reason for not immunizing). But I'll remove my evol. biologist hat for just a second to ask for clarification -

What (other than immunization schedules) can share attribution to the decrease in disease? Increased hygiene. (As opposed to over-hygiene as seems the case of late) Better standards of living. Less crowding. Even for someone who supports immunization, surely you acknowledge that the decrease in disease isn't derived SOLELY from immunization ... right?