From herd immunity and complacency to group panic: How vaccine scares unfold

[trotsky]

1. "This suggests that immunization programs can be victims of their own success"`

Suggests? I assert the absolute truth of that statement.

The near-elimination of most common childhood diseases (and the eradication of smallpox) has meant generations of people could grow up without even seeing someone who was blinded or suffered extreme brain damage from measles. Someone in an iron lung because of polio.

Because they lack these reference points, they cannot perform an accurate risk assessment when it comes to vaccines. A literal one-in-a-million chance of a serious vaccine reaction becomes worse than anything those diseases can do - because from their experience, those diseases do NOTHING.

The most you'll get out of those kinds of people is an off-the-cuff dismissal that anything those diseases might cause could be easily treated with some Tylenol and quarantine. Of course, I've also met a few - including right here on DU - who think that the population needs a little weeding out of the weak and susceptible anyway.