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February 28, 2006


Public Health Press

Fortunately we're fine as long as the vast majority are vaccinated. Who knows where my classmate got measles from, but she didn't spread it to anyone else.

As vaccines are not 100% effective, the presence of an unvaccinated child or children significantly increases the risk of contraction of the disease to child who has been unsuccessfully immunized (meaning: vaccinated but it didn't take).

The main focus of the argument against the individual objector is not the risk to that individual child (although obviously, the risks are significantly higher for them), but rather the risk to the population at large. The reduction in herd immunity protection for society is where the rubber hits the road.

Also, the conscientious objection component of the population, while growing, is still quite small compared to the % of the population who don't get immunized because of difficulty accessing the vaccines.

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