Okay, so Science Based Medicine is on a roll today. In¬†an article by Joseph Albeitz entitled Can We Hide In The Herd, he gives a breakdown of what herd immunity is and how it works. Without properly understanding it, a lot of people are choosing not to immunize against a variety of diseases because they don’t kill anyone anymore, but the concept of herd immunity isn’t a get out of jail free card. One clear example of this is the story of Dana McCaffery, a four week old baby too young to be vaccinated against pertussis¬†(whooping cough). All newborns must rely on herd immunity, and an outbreak of whooping cough in her area brought about by the effective anti-vax campaigns in Australia resulted in her death.
Dr. Albeitz clears away some of the false ideas we have about herd immunity, and explains very effectively why it’s a good thing and why abusing it is dangerous not just to newborns and chemo patients, but to the unvaccinated on the whole.
Jim
Thanks for this post, Jim. We agree, herd immunity is a must.
It’s difficult to think that some diseases rarely seen in recent years are now rearing their ugly heads again just because parents won’t immunize. Herd immunization doesn’t work unless the people who can get vaccinated actually *get* vaccinated.