Posted: May 27, 2013 3:38 pm
tolman wrote:Pebble wrote:When the disease is common the risk benefit ratio massively favours vaccination as the diseases is driven toward extinction the risk benefit ratio may even reverse - so then the issue is one of public health and it is easy for individuals to argue that they feel uncomfortable consenting on behalf of their children to any increase in risk. Of course this is a very short term strategy since they are also consenting to continued risk exposure of all future generations.
Personally I would have far more respect for someone who was doing that for reasons other than specific medical ones if they had both the understanding and honesty to admit that that was actually what they were doing - pursuing a strategy which, when it does work, only works due to the presence of widespread vaccination and which is therefore not a stable strategy since it is effectively parasitic in nature.
Not sure I can follow the last sentence. Parasitic how? The risks are very low, even if they in some instances exceed the benefit to the individual, and the consequences of failing to eradicate or keep to a very low level nasty infectious diseases are very severe. If we could quarantine populations once the disease had been eradicated in one area, this problems would be overcome easily - but most people would prefer freedom of movement even if there are some risks involved.