Mandatory Vaccinations

So to spell it out for the skeptics (since I don't think it's been fully stated yet), the reason EVERYONE should get vaccinations is because those who don't stand a greater chance of contacting the disease, on average, than those who are vaccinated, and by simply contracting a disease you're opening up new possibilities for mutation that endangers everyone else, vaccinated or not, because the vaccines only recognize one form of the pathogen.

Just want to extract this point from the post because it bears repeating -
When you refuse a vaccine, not only do you endanger yourself, but you endanger every person you come into contact with on a daily basis.

It's all very well to say you're willing to risk measles/mumps/rubella because you prefer those to a hypothetical possibility of autism (not that they've ever been conclusively linked) - but making that decision for other people is callous and foolhardy.


When you look at statistics like, "75% of infected had been vaccinated", in a population where vaccination rates are around 95%:
- by choosing not to get the vaccine you've infected 3 people who do not want the disease
- there are 19 times as many vaccinated as unvaccinated. That means the chance of infection is 3/19 as much in the vaccinated population. Only about 1/6 as many people caught the disease after being vaccinated. That's pretty friggin awesome, when you think about it. 5 people who no longer have to worry about hospital time, drugs, time off work, or potentially even worse issues.
In order to demonstrate that a vaccine is ineffective, the infected and uninfected populations would need to be indistinguishable: if 95% of the general population is vaccinated, then 95% of the infected population is also vaccinated. As soon as the second percent drops below the first percent, you have a statistically useful vaccine. When it drops to the point where it prevents 84% of infections I'd say that's a pretty good result.