It's nice to see such long term data put to use and to be shown in graphical form what everyone has been screaming vaccines save lives!<p>Yes I get vaccinated yearly for the flu, I also got one for H1N1 (?) a few years ago.<p>So many people across all age ranges it's sad, the comments in the NYT article are sad to see. A 20 something guy at work was telling me excitedly how "some guy" on YouTube "proved" writing the word hate and love on water bottles then freezing them makes the ice different. This same person is against vehemently against all GM foods and Big Pharma, the "some guy on YouTube" is the all-knowing answer.
They've published their data, which is fantastic and by far the most important part of the article. <a href="http://www.tycho.pitt.edu/" rel="nofollow">http://www.tycho.pitt.edu/</a><p>I have to take issue with some parts of the article. Lohr (the NYT article's Author) cites 38,000 cases of Pertussis in the US. It may just be a coincidence, but 38,000 is the number of cases recently reported in Australia. The CDC reports[1] 27,550 for 2010 (an awesomely precise estimate), so, 38k doesn't sound out of line, but I didn't find a source for that number. Going back to Australia where they have 95% compliance according to this news article[2], they suspect that mutation of the pathogen is responsible for the rise in cases. The NYT article OTOH, lays the blame on non-compliant parents. Additionally, the acellular Pertussis vaccine apparently doesn't always prevent illness, but lessens the severity and duration of infection. So, it could well be that most of the reported cases were vaccinated as was the case in Australia.<p>I wonder why authors feel the need to keep re-writing the standard pro-vaccination puff pieces. They don't seem to do anything to convince skeptics. I'd like to see a study of why people choose to refuse vaccines and apply those results to efforts to increase vaccination rates.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/whooping.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/whooping.htm</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/health/thepulse/stories/2012/08/14/3567495.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.abc.net.au/health/thepulse/stories/2012/08/14/356...</a>
Does the average HN reader get vaccinations? How about for their children? I'm interested in peoples' critical thought, since we as a loose community often take an investigative/contrarian approach to assumed best practices. It seems many of us are acutely aware of herd mentality, collusion and corruption when it comes to the combination of tech subjects, the media and government/societal norms.<p>Personally, I am for vaccination. I'm way over vaccinated due to trips to third world countries -- sometimes I would get 6 shots over 2 days. However the spacing for vaccinations in infants seems rushed, and the ingredients are something I wouldn't let my kid touch or eat. (kind of like how you wouldn't feed your kid honey until after they're one) I recently told our doctor we wanted an ingredient list of the vaccines they were planning to administer, so we could attempt to understand, before following their schedule in ignorance. I definitely don't want my kid to have the diseases our grand parents grew up with, and that means vaccinating.<p>I'm wondering if a doctor would balk at signing a document of liability for {x} resulting from vaccination. If she wouldn't put her career behind her belief, should I believe her?<p>Does herd immunity require herd mentality? Can one investigate, or at least try to be diligent without being vilified?