“A New England Journal of Medicine article from May 2009 reported geographic clusters of parents who choose not to vaccinate their children, including several areas where the rate of non-medical exemptions are higher than 10 percent.
Lewis said while most of the time the children will be safe, there are serious risks to not vaccinating children, particularly with outbreaks of measles and pertussis. Those diseases can cause pneumonia, blindness and brain infection, she said.
Unvaccinated children also threaten children who can’t get immunized for health reasons like cancer. “People who can’t get vaccinated because of a medical reason really rely on everyone else to protect them,” Ernst said. “You hate to tell people what to do, but I am worried about misinformation out there on the Web …
“Vaccines have been the single most effective public health intervention. They have saved countless lives globally. It’s sad to see people not scared of diseases anymore.””
- On vaccinations, some parents fear ‘wrong things’ (via whenrobotsreproduce)
Lewis said while most of the time the children will be safe, there are serious risks to not vaccinating children, particularly with outbreaks of measles and pertussis. Those diseases can cause pneumonia, blindness and brain infection, she said.
Unvaccinated children also threaten children who can’t get immunized for health reasons like cancer. “People who can’t get vaccinated because of a medical reason really rely on everyone else to protect them,” Ernst said. “You hate to tell people what to do, but I am worried about misinformation out there on the Web …
“Vaccines have been the single most effective public health intervention. They have saved countless lives globally. It’s sad to see people not scared of diseases anymore.””
- On vaccinations, some parents fear ‘wrong things’ (via whenrobotsreproduce)