TD I recommend you read up on the diseases we vaccinate for. Just a couple/few generations ago some of this diseases were widespread, prevelant and a massive health issue.
That we were able to wrangle these diseases from widespread debilitation of the population to bear eradication is amazing. Even if everything this nutjob anti vaxxers said was true it would still be better for everyone to get vaccinated. Of course non of it is true so it is not even a question.
As for the flu vaccine, if you ever get a five alarm case of the flu you absolutely would never miss another flu shot again. You may be healthy but that is a lot of randomness there. No need to risk it. Some years (like last year) the vaccine is not spot on and doesn’t prevent all the strains of that season. The flu vaccine is predictive and tries to determine what prevelant strains will exist in the next flu season. As you get older it becomes even more important as the flu can lead to all sorts of other complications.
Most of us here grew up in a post vaccine world. Even those of us who are a bit older as most of these vaccines were developed in the 50s and more so mid to late 60s. But that means lots of parents and all of our grand parents lived in a world where these diseases were active menaces.
This is a good paragraph stolen from Wikipedia on the measles vaccine:
Quote:
In 1991 in the Philadelphia region, thousands of children were sick with measles. The epicenter of this outbreak was traced to the Faith Tabernacle Congregation, a Faith Healing church that actively discouraged parishioners from vaccinating their children. A Court Order was obtained to forcibly treat and vaccinate children whose parents would not agree to seeking medical care. Nine children eventually died as a result of this outbreak.[68]
Last edited by markksman; 03-06-2019 at 07:48 AM.