# Why vaccinate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 13, 2002, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603 "2002-12-13T20:43:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![buzzz\_kill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@buzzz\_kill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buzzz_kill)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/1 "2002-12-13T20:43:18Z")
If the government vaccinates the entire US population, an estimated 3-4 hundred people are going to die due to complications! Why not use a harmless saline _“placebo”_ solution in it’s place? If Al-Queda (and Co.) thinks that releasing such a virus would not give the desired effect, would they even bother going through the motions? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/2 "2002-12-13T21:05:55Z")
Way to go, **buzzz\_kill**. Now they know. ---
**Author:** ![buzzz\_kill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@buzzz\_kill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buzzz_kill)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/3 "2002-12-13T21:06:50Z")
Shhhhhhhhhhh!!! ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/4 "2002-12-13T21:10:58Z")
So they’ll just kill us with Vx I suppose. I don’t see the point of vaccination. ---
**Author:** ![starfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@starfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starfish)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/5 "2002-12-13T21:31:59Z")
Only government, police, military, media, etc would be vaccinated. The general public would not be vaccinated. Most of the public has to live since they directly pay for the government/police/military, and pay for the media through advertizing. But some of the public has to die. It gives the media something to report about and so cause terror. You need to have terror so the government can have a war on terror. ---
**Author:** ![Splanky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/6 "2002-12-13T21:41:24Z")
Think again. [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=514&ncid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20021213/ap\_on\_go\_pr\_wh/bush\_smallpox\_22](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=514&ncid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20021213/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_smallpox_22) Bush plans on vaccinating the entire country. I know for sure I will refuse if they want me to. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/7 "2002-12-13T21:47:11Z")
**buzzz\_kill** , [multiple posting](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=150210) is frowned upon. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/8 "2002-12-13T21:55:14Z")
\*\* Splanky\*\* Nothing in the article you posted said anything different than what **starfish** said. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/9 "2002-12-13T22:10:14Z")
A placebo won’t produce all the [side effects](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=585&ncid=585&e=10&u=/nm/20021213/sc_nm/health_smallpox_effects_dc) of a real shot. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/10 "2002-12-13T22:11:27Z")
It is my understanding that the front-line people will be vaccinated first, then vaccinations will be available to the general public. Older folks around here have already had smallpox vaccinations- it’s only the younger one who haven’t yet. Many vaccinations cause problems in a small number of people. That doesn’t mean we stop vaccinating. People sometimes forget that these diseases are downright horrible, and that we started vaccinating for a reason. I am not afraid of the smallpox vaccine. But I don’t know what I’ll do when (if) it becomes available. ---
**Author:** ![OldBroad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@OldBroad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldBroad)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/11 "2002-12-13T22:45:27Z")
When I was a kid, we **all** got smallpox vaccinations. Having that scar on your arm or thigh was proof that you were no longer a “little” kid. I don’t know of any kids in my school who had serious side effects. Our parents had seen smallpox first hand and were grateful that it was the one thing they could protect us against. Polio was about the only thing that frightened parents more than smallpox. It was a given that sometime during elementary school we’d all get measles, chicken pox and mumps. It sure was a different time. It will be interesting to see how this all turns out. As long as it remains a threat only, many people will opt not to be vaccinated. If the disease becomes a reality again, there’ll be stampedes to the clinics. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/12 "2002-12-14T00:16:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Splanky \* > \*\*Think again. > > [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=514&ncid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20021213/ap\_on\_go\_pr\_wh/bush\_smallpox\_22](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=514&ncid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20021213/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_smallpox_22) > > Bush plans on vaccinating the entire country. \*\* Huh? From that article: “Bush opted against a nationwide campaign to educate — and eventually inoculate — the entire country” ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/13 "2002-12-14T01:24:52Z")
> [@](#): > > “Bush opted against a nationwide campaign to educate — and eventually inoculate — the entire country” I suspect it was the “educate” part that worried him. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/14 "2002-12-14T05:27:26Z")
Are those of who were vaccinated still immune? I was vaccinated - oh 48 years ago or so. Would I have to do it again? And if it didn’t kill me then, is it possible it would kill me now? Inquiring minds want to know. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/15 "2002-12-14T05:39:44Z")
At what age were people who _were_ vaccinated given the shot? As it stands over 90 million of us (going by age data in the 2000 census records) were born after the vaccine was discontinued in 1972. There have to be people born before then who were too young to have gotten it because they didn’t give it to babies. So how old are the youngest people who got it? ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/16 "2002-12-14T06:20:44Z")
In the only case on record where smallpox broke out in an place where part of the population had been vaccinated long before, it proved to be the case that some immunity was retained by most of the people who had been vaccinated even decades before. As a group, they were less likely to be infected, and if infected less likely to die, than the entire population in the exposure area. It was also the case that those vaccinated before, considered as a group, had more deaths, and more serious illness from smallpox than they had had as a group from the vaccination. The numbers are somewhat better now, for complications, and deaths expected from vaccination, and the statistical expectations from smallpox itself are highly speculative, but somewhat better than they were half a century ago. From a military preparedness point of view, if the entire population, gets vaccinated, someone has spent millions of dollars for a weapon system that now represents a bigger threat to the country that possesses it that it does to the country it was intended to attack. Three to five hundred deaths out of the 2,391,399 people who died in 1999, is a very small fraction. It is less than three and a half percent of the number who died from AIDS that year. It is even less than the number who died of malnutrition, in the same year. If this number represents a number that indicates that we should be changing our medical policies, then perhaps we should consider the policies that allowed more than that number of people to starve to death during one year. This will not be a repeating statistic. It will be a single incidence, and it will then be followed by a very small number of subsequent deaths as the policy includes new, and unvaccinated individuals. Still, I agree with prevailing opinion, that the vaccination of large numbers of people should be controlled and planned to maximize the effectiveness of the immunity created. First responders, hospital workers, and those likely to be exposed to the first responders and health workers. Until the likelihood of an attack is seen to be much more probable, it seems prudent to prepare, and plan for universal vaccination, but not to initiate such a program, pending a change in status quo. Tris ---
**Author:** ![buzzz\_kill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@buzzz\_kill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buzzz_kill)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/17 "2002-12-14T16:41:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Terminus Est \* > \*\ ***buzzz\_kill** , [multiple posting](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=150210) is frowned upon. \*\* Well try and turn your frown upside down kiddo!! ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/18 "2002-12-14T18:23:40Z")
1. Bin Laden presents himself as a moral person (anything can be misused, including thinking yourself moral.) I can’t see him turning loose something so contagious, that would spread like fire through Muslims and non-Muslims alike. 2. I don’t see Saddam leaving his fingerprints on any such move, _until_ he believes he is losing. I could see him doing it out of spite & hostility as his last move. 3. I looked for vaccines for anthrax, smallpox, Ebola, during the uproar. Since vaccination was not available, here is the basic plan: a) If smallpox or other highly contagious and dangerous disease is reported, we in this house will allow probably one day to get supplies and organize as necessary, and then everyone will stay home until Public Health provides vaccines. If anyone leaves, they can’t come back in–ie they can go live with their boyfriend instead, but no in-and-outs. It could easily be weeks. One of us is employed at a hospital, it’s up to her whether she works or stays home. b) If anthrax or botulism gets spread in this area, flee. c) If Pakistan and India swap nukes, we move to the basement as a fallout shelter for weeks. (no joke, see [http://www.oism.org/NWSS/](http://www.oism.org/NWSS/) 4. Meanwhile, we continue to exercise, eat fruits & vegetables, and drive safely. We continue to be realistic about our jobs and our money. We continue to learn things. We continue to visit and laugh with our friends and relations. (not very dramatic, right? Couldn’t put it on TV) ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vaccinate/142603/19 "2002-12-14T21:24:05Z")
Look, I really don’t understand the panic about the prospect of a smallpox vaccine. You won’t have to get vaccinated unless you are a medical professional or in the military. For everyone else it will be voluntary. And even if only half the country gets vaccinated it will still mean that any potential smallpox epidemic will be much less severe. Think about how smallpox epidemics work. You are infected by someone. You will either get die, or get better and be immune. In that period of time while you are infectious an infectious person must infect, on average at least one other person. And who is most likely to be infected? Health care workers. If the health care workers are protected, and a certain critical threshold of the population is protected, then the epidemic will burn itself out. If an infectious person only infects on average of .9 people before either dying or getting better then there is no epidemic, just an isolated outbreak. That said, releasing smallpox would be a very odd choice for a movement based in the third world, unless you factor in the suicidal nature of some of these people. A smallpox epidemic widespread enough to cause major damage to the US is almost certainly going to spread worldwide in this age of global air travel. And the US and Europe are better prepared for an epidemic of this sort by a few orders of magnitude than most third world countries that are struggling just to contain present diseases. But vaccinating a large proportion of our population makes smallpox very unlikely to be used anyway. If we vaccinate, we take the weapon off the table. It doesn’t matter how crazy al-Qaida is, they won’t use smallpox if it won’t work.