Re: WC 150K Post Challenge - You Ready?!
Rue, I needed this to understand the whole thing around anti vaxers. Didn't know it went that far.
Well I listened to that and it was good however it wasn't totally about vaccinations. It seemed to concentrate on bacteria resistance, which is also an issue but not fully vaccines.
The best way to put it is this:
Vaccines are about creating herd immunity. What this means is that you have the majority vaccinated and that should protect those who cannot be vaccinated. However, when you get a larger percentage of people not vaccinated that breaks herd immunity therefore leaving a larger number of people open to disease. Even if you are vaccinated you have the possibility of getting the disease as it may mutate.
This is why polio won't go away and why other disease that were once consider eradicated are resurfacing.
Our 'first world thinking' about how safe we are is causing this issue. Because we are often shielded from the horrors of what these disease do. It wasn't that long ago that polio, smallpox and other killer/disfiguring diseases were running rampant on the planet. Less than 100 years ago. My aunt is deaf in one ear due to smallpox. My mother had people on her street dying and whole neighbourhoods quarantined. We've become blind to these facts.
The anti vax crowd seem to think that their lifestyle creates a better immunity than medicine and science. Viral bacteria don't care how good your immune system is. A child's immunity is not very good. Even most adults is not that great.
We are technically one disease epidemic away from a large portion of the population being killed off. The last big one was in 1918-1920 - 75,000.000 people died worldwide. Think about that for a moment and realise that's before easy travel around the world.
The last thing we need is a resurfacing of old diseases on top of that possibility. The sheer ignorance of the anti vax crowd is what scares the daylights out of me and the way they pander to the 'protective parenting' of today is what is driving this nonsense. The anti vaxxers are vile people spreading their ignorance using conspiracy theories and scaremongering.
This is the world we live in now. Sad really. In the past there would be no question about getting vaccinations, now we question this simple idea... that's just messed.