In the interests of fighting ignorance, let’s be perfectly clear what we’re talking about here. From this site:
I’ll give you a brief description of the disease caused by each of these organisms commonly vaccinated for (paraphrasings from site listed previously) - please take the time to read this long post. It is important to all of us that this particular ignorance is fought.
Diphtheria - Bacteria that releases a toxin that makes breathing and swallowing difficult; also attacks heart, kidneys, and nerves. Before vaccination, diphtheria was a common cause of death in children and adolescents, with 150,000 cases occurring each year.
Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) - Bacteria that causes meningitis, sepsis (blood infection), epiglottitis, athritis, osteomyelitis, and pneumonia. Symptoms include fever, stiff neck, drowsiness and can progress to coma and death. Bacteria can cause permanent paralysis, deafness, blindness, and mental retardation. Most people carry Hib in their nose and throats (most adults are immune to Hib).
Hepatitis A - Virus causes inflammation of the liver. Symptoms include fever, jaundice, nausea, and vomiting. Kills about 50 Americans each year. Transmitted in food and water as well as human contact. Prevalent everywhere in the world except for North America.
Hepatitis B - Virus causes inflammation of the liver, cirrhosis (severe liver disease), cancer of the liver. Many infected people carry the disease asymptomatically. 5,000 Americans die from Hepatitis B each year. Another 10,000 develop long-term hepatitis. Transmitted by casual contact and/or contact with body fluids of carriers.
Influenza - 40,000 Americans killed by influenza virus every year. 21 million people killed in worldwide influenza pandemic in 1918. Symptoms include high fever, chills, severe muscle aches and headache, runny nose and cough. Complications include severe and possibly fatal pneumonia. People with weakened immune systems may die from influenza.
Measles - Virus that causes high fever, red, raised rash, and “pink eye.” Can often develop into pneumonia which can cause death. Older children infected with measle virus can develop encephalitis (infection of the brain) which can cause permanent brain damage. 66 cases of measles reported in U.S. in 2005.
Meningococcal infection - Bacterial infection causing meningitis and sepsis. Meningitis from meningococcus has a 5% death rate for children. Sepsis from meningococcus has a 33% death rate for children (often within 12 hours of contracting the bacteria). Symptoms of meningitis include stiff neck, headache, fever, and drowsiness. Symptoms of sepsis include fever, shock, and coma. Every year 2,500 Americans infected with meningococcus; 300 die. Approximately 400 people who survive infection have permanent disabilties such as seizures, loss of limbs, kidney disease, deafness or mental retardation. Infection spread by intimate contact with infected person (kissing, sharing food and beverages, staying in same house or room for more than four hours a day).
Mumps - Virus that causes swelling in the parotid or salivary glands. Can cause meningitis and deafness. In men infected with mumps, can cause orchitis (infection of testicles) and sterility. Mumps in pregnant women can kill the fetus.
Pertussis (whooping cough) - Extremely contagious bacterial infection (infection caused by infectious droplets). Causes children to cough uncontrollably, often so bad they are unable to catch their breath. Pneumonia or seizures can develop. Children catch pertussis from adults - around 600,000 to 900,000 adults get pertussis each year, causing about 10 deaths in children even with the vaccine. Very serious for babies and young children.
Pneumococcus - Bacteria that causes serious infections of infants, toddlers, older people, and immunocompromised people. Causes meningitis, bloodstream infections, and pneumonia (as well as ear infections). Pneumonia includes high fever, cough, rapid, difficult breathing, and empyema that can compress and collapse a lung. Commonly found in the lining of nose and throat in 25% of humans. In the U.S. in 2000, pneumococcus caused 700 cases of meningitis, 17,000 cases of bloodstream infections, and 71,000 cases of pneumonia. Because of the overuse of antibiotics, many pneumococcus bacteria are now resistant to antibiotics.
Poliovirus - Highly contagious virus causes sore throat, fever, stomach pain/vomiting, stiff neck, and/or headache. Virus starts in intestines and travels through blood to brain and spinal cord. Paralysis is caused by virus attacking nervous system. 10% of people infected recovered fully - the rest confined to wheelchairs or iron lungs for the rest of their lives. Virus transmitted by fecal-oral route or oral-oral route, with a nearly 100% infection rate when children come in contact with poliovirus. Polio eradicated from the US, but still active in a dozen countries.
Rotavirus - Virus that causes infection of the intestines. Symptoms are high fever, persistent and severe vomiting, diarrhea. Extremely common infection - before the vaccine, 2.7 million children were infected, resulting in 55,000 - 70,000 hospitalizations and 20 to 60 deaths.
Rubella (German Measles) - Virus that causes mild rash, gland swelling, possible swelling of small joints and low-grade fever. Rubella in children is not a serious infection, but rubella virus can infect fetuses, causing blindness, deafness, heart defects or mental retardation. If infected in the first trimester of pregnancy, there is an 85% chance of permanent damage to the fetus. Female children in particular are vaccinated to protect their future fetuses. Rubella virtually eradicated in the U.S., but common in other countries.
Tetanus (lockjaw) - Bacteria found in the soil creates a toxin that causes muscle spasms that can interfere with breathing, causing suffocation, and also damage the heart. Tetanus bacteria are everywhere; every year 70 cases of tetanus causing 15 deaths are reported.
Varicella-zoster virus (chickenpox) - Extremely contagious virus that causes low-grade fever and blisters over entire body. Usually a mild infection, but can cause empyema (pus between lungs and chest wall), pneumonia, encephalitis, and Group A Streptococcus infection (“flesh-eating” bacteria) which enter through the skin during varicella infection. Before the vaccine, one child per week would die in the U.S. from chickenpox. Varicella virus lives in the human body for your entire life; it may re-activate later in life to cause extremely painful nerve blisters called Shingles.
No responsible parent would allow their children to develop any of these diseases if they don’t have to. These are not just childhood diseases, either. Some of them continue to affect adults, in some cases worse than children (mumps and chickenpox are two examples of this).