Interesting Information: May 11, 2015
Herd Immunity: Myth or Reality?
Tetyana Obukhanych
In Maine today, the vaccine hearings are taking place.
What is at stake is the sovereign individuals right to refuse vaccines. What is at stake is giving the state the right to deny education.
The operating theoretical idea is “herd immunity”–so that the unvaccinated are seen to be disease carriers.
Predictable, a terrible article appeared in The Portland Press Herald over the weekend–an article filled with myth and which helps to create public hysteria.
Here’s immunologist Tetyana Obukhanych’s SCIENTIFIC explanation of why “herd immunity” is not a valid or effective philosophical concept.
If you believe “herd immunity” to be valid, I would urge you to read this piece–before you demonize any unvaccinated child again. Vaccinated children shed disease from vaccines and are just as much carriers as the unvaccinated. At-risk children need to be asking “are there any recently vaccinated in the room,” rather than the opposite. And that child needs to stay out of crowds.
Here are, also, two small quotes from the piece:
Herd immunity is not an immunologic idea, but rather an epidemiologic construct, which theoretically predicts successful disease control when a certain pre-calculated percentage of people in the population are immune from disease.
And:
The belief in herd immunity has no doubt been influencing vaccine-related legislation in many U.S. states and other countries. This notion is used as a trump card to justify and mandate legal measures aiming to increase vaccination compliance. An implicit assumption is that liberal vaccine exemptions somehow compromise this precious herd immunity, which the public-health authorities strive to establish and maintain via vaccination.
Herd Immunity, a Flawed Concept
Although the evidence for vaccination-based herd immunity is yet to materialize, there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Herd Immunity: Myth or Reality? | GreenMedInfo | Blog Entry.
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