That’s interesting, and I hope it really takes hold.
Agreed, but it would be disingenuous to think that an important decision like this would be made in a vacuum.
As Broomstick says, adults being vaccinated is also part of herd immunity. As a healthy adult with no lung issues, whooping cough probably wouldn’t be a huge deal for me, but my vaccination is part of breaking the infection chain - I don’t get it, I don’t infect other people.
I had it when I was very young, so I don’t remember it. My Mum apparently very much remembers me stopping breathing a couple of times.
Eta:
Unsurprisingly my whooping cough happened when I was too young for the vaccine but there was widespread avoiding the vaccination in the UK due to public fears regarding it which was egged on by the press. This was the mid 1970s.
Absolutely. Its not called “the 100 days cough” for nothing. Had it once & many Drs by us refused to diagnose it leading to visits to different GP after different GP about why I never seemed to be getting any better.
Evidently if you get cornered into declaring it Whooping Cough, its All Your Fault, it makes you a Bad Dr, and you lose your shot at first Tee-Off times at AMA accredited golf courses.
“Dr, I’m coughing to the point where I’m actually passing out…”
“Hi! I’m Dr Lyingsonofbitcheson. Just spray this Chloraseptic down your throat an you’ll be fine in a week.”
Just don’t come back, Plague Carrier.
Speaking of which, here’s a classic post on the subject:
Yes, being deliberately stoopid is so darn frustrating!
Herd immunity isn’t that hard to figure out, either (if I’m understanding it correctly myself) - everyone’s vaccinated*, so no one gets the disease, so they don’t infect the people who are too young, too sick, and too old to fight the disease off, so these vulnerable people are protected by everyone else looking out for them. Where’s the bullshit there?
*Except the people who actually can’t get vaccinations, which is a very small percentage.
ETA: And by “classic,” you mean “makes you want to tear your hair out and yell at somebody?”
I understand your hesitation about forcing people to have shots. However, there is another path that I’ve seen being taken:
In order to attend school, children must be able to show proof of vaccination. No proof, you’re not allowed in school until you can show proof.
This isn’t the government *forcing *anyone to have a vaccination. However, if you aren’t vaccinated, you can’t partake of some of the services that the government provides.
J.
Eh. Ten years is long enough. Tetanus was always five to ten, and I always got those.
Apologies to everyone who’s heard this before. Because titers were part of my prenatal blood tests, back in the day, I’ve had three rubella shots. And I still showed no trace of immunity when I had my third child, a year and a half after the last shot. Despite the doctor recommending that I get one from the pediatrician, I didn’t bother getting a fourth one.
But I’ve had a whooping cost booster within the last five years.
That makes all kinds of sense to me. The downside, I guess, is that the people who would tend to homeschool anyway (because they don’t want their kids’ religious brainwashing getting watered down) will just homeschool anyway, not solving anything.
Another step we could take is travelling across country borders - you don’t get to leave your country of origin if you can’t prove vaccinations. It would help to keep outbreaks from going global at least.
jharvey’s point made a lot of sense to me too.
The traveling requirement could get awfully complex, though. Since the things you’d need to be vaccinated against are going to change from region to region across the world.