Can anyone answer this post?

[Guest guest]

I read a post in a answer to 'herd immunity'. I don't really believe it but I'm

not sure how to refute....

Can anyone comment?

Magda

" Herd immunity can occur naturally if a population is exposed to a pathogen on a

regular basis AND if the immune response is durable AND if the pathogen does not

" drift " (like flu viruses). That is a lot of ifs.

Unfortunately, highly virulent organisms tend infect everyone in a population,

wipe out a certain number of them, and then move on to other susceptible

populations or regress to their carrier species. When the same pathogen comes

back around in 20 or 30 years, there are plenty of members of the population who

never saw that pathogen before and have no immunity. The same thing recurs: lots

of people sick and lots of deaths.

That's where vaccinations come in: they work best when enough people (or

animals) are vaccinated to stop the chain of transmission of the pathogen from

one host/victim to another. But if some are immunized and/or naturally immune

and others are not, the pathogen will be transmitted for as long as it finds

hosts to propagate in. Every unvaccinated child presents an opportunity for the

most lethal pathogens we know — that is why we have developed vaccines to them.

Herd immunity created through vaccination is what eradicated smallpox. Herd

immunity created through vaccination is what eradicated polio throughout much of

the world. Herd immunity is what got my generation through school without

measles or rubella. To think that people are willing to put their own and other

people's children at risk of these diseases again bewilders me. I cannot stay

silent on these issues. "