Say a vaccine offers 90% protection (i.e. a vaccinated child that is exposed to the pathogen has a 10% chance of getting the disease despite being vaccinated). When EVERYBODY is vaccinated, 90% protection is more than enough to ensure that a single outbreak cannot spread and cause an epidemic. The disease gets rare. Your kid’s chances of getting sick decline by far more than 90%.

But when your kid is in an environment that’s rife with pathogens -such as when your neighbors refuse to vaccinate their own children- that 90% protection is just that, 90% protection.

The additional immunity gained by living among vaccinated neighbors is called herd immunity. It’s also the reason nobody bothers to write virals for Macs (>90% of computers is “immune” to Mac-viruses, so it’s very hard for a Mac-virus to spread exponentially).

We have already suffered a major catastrophe because super bugs have evolved that are immune to antibiotics because antibiotics have been used carelessly.

The bugs aren’t super, they’re plan old fashion microbes who’ve evolved around the biochemistries exploited by the antibiotics. They’re no more dangerous than any other microbes. They’re exactly as lethal as the pre-antibiotic microbes.

Obviously forcing every one to use semi-effective vaccines will lead to a new catastrophe in which super bugs evolve that are immune to the defensive weapons created by these vaccines.

Microbes will eventually evolve around the vaccines but they won’t be anymore lethal than the versions now. Most microbes both bacteria and viruses are to diverse or fast evolving to vaccinate against. That’s why we have to make a new flu vaccine every year. Fortunately, the most lethal and easy to transmit diseases are small stable viruses.

In short, defending against infectious diseases doesn’t make them more lethal. It just creates selection pressure for them to evolve around the defense. If the converse was true, the human immune system would drive the evolution of progressively more lethal diseases. In truth, diseases grow milder and more parasitic or symbiotic the longer they infect humans.

Education is the key. Most vaccines today are heat killed and not live vaccines. Don’t just sit back as a parent and listen to some crazy people saying this will do harm to you or your kids if you vaccinate them. If it was true at all, the whole population would have Autism etc. We have more illegal immigrants than ever not vaccinating themselves or their kids that enter our public schools ( and all public areas) everyday and that right there makes me want to vaccinate my kids. That could be one reason why these diseases are surfacing again too. Illegals entering our country not being vaccinated and then people who are not vaccinating their kids get it too. Get a grip, save a life, and vaccinate already!

We have already suffered a major catastrophe because super bugs have evolved that are immune to antibiotics because antibiotics have been used carelessly. Obviously forcing every one to use semi-effective vaccines will lead to a new catastrophe in which super bugs evolve that are immune to the defensive weapons created by these vaccines. These diseases will evolve to become much more harmful than they were in the past. Indeed, this evolution is taking place right now because these diseases are much more harmful because they are much more feared than they were 60 years ago.

I think the new immunizations blast kids with protections for many diseases at once and that may have been the issue. When I was young (born 1968) we had many different immunizations. And there was no choice. Now we have a measles outbreak in Milawaukee. Coming soon to a town near you.

Yeah, I’ve started to advise relatives to ask people if they’re vaccinated before they let them in close contact with the families infant children. I’m afraid this will go on until a large outbreak kills enough children.