First Posted: 2/16/2015
In a recent Lima News column, Thomas J. Lucente Jr. made several ignorant claims about vaccines. There isn’t enough time to address all of them, so I will address one.
Lucente claimed that “the idea that an unvaccinated child presents a risk to vaccinated child is silly if you believe vaccines work. After all, the vaccinated child should be safe, right?”
This statement demonstrates Lucente’s complete ignorance on the subject.
Vaccines are not 100 percent effective, that’s why everyone should get them. Here is one example of how they work.
If a group of children all receive a vaccine that is 85 percent effective, this will greatly reduce the chance that any of them will get that particular disease. And even though some may actually get the disease, they will be unlikely to pass it on, because everyone is vaccinated. By vaccinating successive generations, we can wipe out diseases. A vaccine that is only 85 percent effective on an individual, can be 100 percent effective on a population.
But, if 10 percent of this group does not get the vaccine, this will change the outcome. Those 10 percent are far more likely to get the disease. This will reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine on the group and future generations.
Not getting vaccinated not only puts other children at risk, but future generations of children.
If unvaccinated children only interacted with other unvaccinated children and were no longer protected from these many diseases by a wall of vaccinated children, the folly of their ignorance would rapidly become clear.
It is not all about you. It is about future generations of Americans.
