The problem is, they're opting to avoid taking an action that is rumored to possibly put their kid at risk, while NOT vaccinating really does put their kid at risk, with scientific proof and everything. The only reason the antivac movement has gone as far as it has is because the unvaccinated kids have benefited from herd immunity - most people around them are vaccinated, so there aren't any epidemics or even serious outbreaks in the US or UK, so the kids haven't been exposed. Until recently, that is, now that there are concentrations of unvaccinated kids, and sometimes immigrants from poorer countries who never got vaccinated.
I know parents want to protect their kids, but you'd think the educated types who tend to be the antivaccs would bother to actually read the studies and make a good decision. I think we think of measles as not a terrible disease, sort of quaint, but it kills 240,000 kids globally every year, mostly from the 5-10% of cases that have pneumonia as a complication. And it's about 90% contagious, which is much higher than the flu or cold usually, so we just aren't used to wrapping our heads around that kind of outbreak.
Ugh. I have sympathy for the parents of autistic kids who want to know WHY, but they sure have done a lot of damage by latching onto the MMR (prodded by Wakefield et al) as the culprit.
I know parents want to protect their kids, but you'd think the educated types who tend to be the antivaccs would bother to actually read the studies and make a good decision. I think we think of measles as not a terrible disease, sort of quaint, but it kills 240,000 kids globally every year, mostly from the 5-10% of cases that have pneumonia as a complication. And it's about 90% contagious, which is much higher than the flu or cold usually, so we just aren't used to wrapping our heads around that kind of outbreak.
Ugh. I have sympathy for the parents of autistic kids who want to know WHY, but they sure have done a lot of damage by latching onto the MMR (prodded by Wakefield et al) as the culprit.
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