patrick.net

Heard something funny about vaccines the other day.....
Kid with measles goes to the doctor. The doctor tells him "If you connect all the dots, it spells....My parents are idiots"

Reality says

There are numerous additional vaccines that are recommended for travelers to 3rd world hell holes but not recommended at all for the average American living in the US. Your presumption that the guidelines would be the same can only lead one to conclude:

1. You assert vaccines have zero risk, which is false;

2. You don't understand statistics and probability.

I have no idea where Palatin, IL is, nor is it particularly revelant unless you can prove that more people have died in that place due to not using vaccine than all vaccine deaths in all of US.

True--I was thinking only of the vaccines that are recommended for folks in the US, since that's what we are discussing. So, let's get back to the point at hand--should folks in middle class suburbia, USA be required to be vaccinated against measles? Probably and statistics say yes. What say you?

tatupu70 says

There are numerous additional vaccines that are recommended for travelers to 3rd world hell holes but not recommended at all for the average American living in the US. Your presumption that the guidelines would be the same can only lead one to conclude:

1. You assert vaccines have zero risk, which is false;

2. You don't understand statistics and probability.

I have no idea where Palatin, IL is, nor is it particularly revelant unless you can prove that more people have died in that place due to not using vaccine than all vaccine deaths in all of US.

True--I was thinking only of the vaccines that are recommended for folks in the US, since that's what we are discussing. So, let's get back to the point at hand--should folks in middle class suburbia, USA be required to be vaccinated against measles? Probably and statistics say yes. What say you?

Glad you finally agree that different circumstances dictate different statistical/probabilistic optima for vaccine scheduling.

For a family making $40-50k a year living in NYC or SFBA, getting the measles vaccine at age 1 is a good idea due to likely neighborhood population density and likely use of public transportation. OTOH, for a family living on over an acre of land, not sending kid or bringing kid to any venue with recirculated air shared with hundreds of other people, holding off on the MMR to 4+ is a lower risk than risk to vaccine side effects. That's for MMR specifically. For numerous other vaccines, the risk of vaccine itself could well be higher than exposure to the disease for much longer time (until higher age), some forever until a trip to the likes of African jungle is planned.

Reality says

For numerous other vaccines, the risk of vaccine itself could well be higher than exposure to the disease for much longer time (until higher age), some forever until a trip to the likes of African jungle is planned.

OK-so you agree all children need the MMR vaccine?