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Old 05-24-2013, 05:44 PM   #754
DanaC
We have to go back, Kate!
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 25,964
Except, we're not talking about a few non-compliant individuals. The vaccination process was robust enough to accommodate a low level of non-compliance. There was never a 100% take-up. Alongside those who did not comply were those whose family medical history suggested the risks of vaccination outweighed the need for vaccination.

The model was working. It didn't fall apart because a few parents decided to exercise their right not to comply. It started to collapse because a large number of parents were frightened off vaccines by a study which has since been discredited (yes, I know you dispute some of that). Large numbers of parents chose not to vaccinate in the years since that study, and the result is that the number of measles cases have begun to rise rapidly, and we're now hearing of the possible return of mumps and whooping cough as common childhood illnesses.

The outbreak in Swansea is of ordinary, common or garden measles of the sort that we had made a rarity.

This has nothing to do with the unintended consequences of messing with disease evolution and the balance between different factors; it has everything to do with a scandal that was big enough and loud enough to push just enough parents away from vaccination as to render the process ineffective - it's a numbers game.
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