AskDrSears - The Vaccine Book: Polio vaccine and disease: Herd immunity - Are parents who don't vaccinate their infants for polio taking advantage of the rest of you?

Polio vaccine and disease: Herd immunity - Are parents who don't vaccinate their infants for polio taking advantage of the rest of you?

Thursday, September 6, 2007

This is one of the timeless debates over vaccination, and it rings very true for the polio vaccine. This disease has been gone from the U.S. since 1985. Yet, we continue to vaccinate. Why? The answer is obvious - to keep the disease out. It still occurs in parts of Asia and Africa. If we all stop vaccinating before the disease is eradicated from the whole world (like Smallpox was almost 40 years ago), it could potentially make its way back into our country, and we'd have to start all over again.

But some parents choose to skip the vaccine because they know their child is shielded by everyone else around them who are vaccinated ("herd immunity"). However, if too many sheep in the herd hear about this, and decide to skip the shot for themselves, what happens when a sheep from Asia (do they even have sheep in Asia? I guess they do. I always think of sheep being in Ireland, Israel, or Australia) wanders into our herd? If only one of our sheep isn't vaccinated, chances are the two will never come into contact. But what if 10 sheep aren't vaccinated? Or more? The result could be a resurgence of polio, sheep would become paralyzed, some would die, and we'd have less wool to make nice blankets for those cold winter nights. Put into human terms, we'd have a resurgence of paralytic polio. There are still some adults today who were affected by this decades ago and are still suffering from the effects.

Admittedly, it is extremely unlikely that an unvaccinated child living in the U.S. and not traveling to Asia or Africa would catch polio. So I have to admit that parents who skip the vaccine aren't really putting their own individual child at risk. BUT they ARE putting our nation's overall public health endeavor to eliminate polio at risk. Until the entire world is polio-free, continued vaccination, even in our country, is fairly important.

So, how do you make vaccine decisions for your own child? Do you base them on just your own child's risk? Or do you take into consideration the health of all the other kids in your neighborhood, your city, your country, your "herd". Are parents WRONG to put their own kid's health first and foremost? Don't all parents put their own kids first, before anyone else's? This is definitely one of those things that makes me go "hmmmmmm".

Labels: Vaccines and their diseases

8 Comments:

At November 24, 2007 4:41 PM , Anonymous said...

Should I do what is best for my child or for the 'herd'? I was discussing this question with my sister who lives in South Africa. She brought up the point that if a vaccine-preventable disease breaks out, our children who have access to good health care probably with be fine, but that is the poor children with limited or no access to health care that are going to suffer most. So, yes I want to do what is best for my child, but I want to be considerate of someone else's child too. Just another thought.
At February 28, 2008 1:09 PM , Amy S said...

The other side of that is--you don't know for sure that your circumstances will always be the same. There are a lot of ways that your kid can lose that health care access!
At April 4, 2008 3:51 PM , Anonymous said...

I have said this exact thing in countless other forums, but most non vaxing parents deny that they are able to make the decision not to vax in relative security precisely because of parents who do, and they never acknowledge that what they are doing is in any way inconsiderate of others around them. all I ever hear them say is "if your vaccines work, why do you care if my child has a disease?" not realizing the full ramifications and consequences that they have placed out there for themselves and those around them.
At April 19, 2008 1:49 PM , Anonymous said...

I find this topic to be saturated with misinformation and mostly based on promoting fear to the people by subjecting themselves to inoculations. Firstly, educate yourselves to the disease called POLIOMYELITIS(emedicine.com). Learn how they re-diagnose polio before. It has never been eradicated in the US. It just hiding in the names of viral/aseptic meningitis. Secondly, there were no reports of wild-type poliomyelitis infection or death since 1979! Until 1998 there were an average of 8-10 cases of VACCINE-INDUCED POLIOMYELITIS. Secondly, regarding HERD immunity, it only applies to cattles and sheeps, and of course to those experimental animals these vaccine manufacturers are sacrificing. People shouldn't be herded. Unvaccinated people don't owe their good health and protection from disease to these vaccinated individuals who have damaged and corrupt immune system caused by repeated inoculations. Does it make sense? Please reflect why are so many of our highly vaccinated children so sick?
At May 28, 2008 4:32 AM , Kim said...

I am trying to get a single dose vial polio shot for my son as the single dose vials are recommended in general for a number of reasons. My doc only gets the multi dose that the state distributes and the pharmacies I have called say their distributor dose not carry it. What is my next step? I do not want to give it in multi dose version. It is too bad that it is so hard for parents to have an option here with this shot.
At February 20, 2009 1:29 PM , Anonymous said...

Anonymous' (April 19 post) non-sequitor, straw-man response is exactly the reason The Vaccine Book is required.

Here is a question for anti-vaccination types. Imagine you have the power to enforce a vaccination policy for the entire world, but must select one of two options.

(a) Every child must take the recommended vaccine schedule
(b) No child will be given a vaccine

For most of the diseases we vaccinated against, how could a thinking person choose option (a)? Of course, in reality there is an option (c), namely let most of the population vaccinated but just not your kids.

Yet if given (a) and (b) you would choose (a), but in fact follow (c) you are free riding on "herd immunity."

Just like Anonymous (April 4), I have yet to find anybody who will admit this.
At July 13, 2009 10:27 AM , Anonymous said...

Anon Feb 20, you love to hear yourself talk.
At August 28, 2009 5:44 PM , Anonymous said...

If polio is only occuring in certain areas of Africa and Asia, why don't we send vaccines to THEM, rather than injecting our own healthy children with garbage?? I think that would be a more effective approach to eradicating the disease.

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