<Perhaps Bill should read up on what the world was like before modern vaccines were available to wipe out diseases>
Your assumption is that all vaccines are equally important, and equally effective. Vaccines were first used to fight major diseases such as smallpox, typhoid, polio, pertussis, rabies, anthrax, and diphtheria. Then vaccination was introduced for relatively milder (but potentially dangerous) diseases such as measles, influenza, shingles, etc. Should every bacterial and viral infection be prevented by inducing immunogens into the body ?
Just because I avoid influenza vaccines of all types does not mean I would reject a rabies innoculation if the need arose. Your blanket dismissal of the H1N1 anti-vaccination crowd as inferred ignoramuses is simply an ad hominem remark with no applicability.
wg
PS - Speaking of "reading up" perhaps it is you who needs to do some reading on just how "modern" these "modern vaccines" really are. Edward Jenner was late to the party, but he gets the nod because he was first to publish his work. His big contribution was not the principle of vaccination, but rather the recognition that a weak form (cowpox) could provide immunity to a strong form (smallpox). Like Pasteur, we do the same today with weakened immunogens, but the practice of vaccination itself goes back thousands of years. |
