Anti-vax conspiraloons actually killing people.

[hidetheelephants]

It's not at all surprising that a record number of people in europe have caught measles this year, consequently a portion will suffer life-changing complications and 37 people are dead so far.

BBC said:

Italy's upper house of parliament recently voted through legislation to abolish the law that makes vaccination mandatory for children before they start school. The amendment will mean parents of unvaccinated children will no longer face fines.

Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at PHE - "The majority of cases we are seeing are in teenagers and young adults who missed out on their MMR vaccine when they were children."

FFS.

[hidetheelephants]

RTB said:

This thread is rubbish without an anti-vaxxer to argue with.

I hate threads where everyone is sensible and agrees.

It's got a thin coating of homeopathic anti-vax tinfoil, so thin it cannot be detected.

[hidetheelephants]

captain_cynic said:

hidetheelephants said:

It's got a thin coating of homeopathic anti-vax tinfoil, so thin it cannot be detected.

Odd thing is, tinfoil tends to pick up radio waves where as water tends to distort and block them.

So a water containing tin-foil hat may actually stop the brain influencing waves.

Beware the mind-controlling rays.

[hidetheelephants]

jurbie said:

Why is this a problem? I've been vaccinated as have all my family and probably most of my friends. If people are dying unnecessarily due to having idiot parents then that is sad and hardly their fault but not really my problem. Or is it?

I know that sounds incredibly harsh and callous but I'm just trying to understand the wider issue here. Is it the same as banning people from smoking in a car when a child is present, it's to protect the child who won't have any other recourse so needs The State to provide some protection.

I've read this is a big problem in Poland where apparently now there are so many people without vaccinations that they've essentially lost herd immunity. Can someone explain that as it's one of those things which sounds obvious but I'm not sure exactly what it means.

Herd immunity for measles is generally obtained once >95% of a population have been inoculated as it's infectious as fk; this allows for the small number of people who cannot safely be immunised, due mainly to compromised immune systems. The idiot parents are not hazarding their own health, they're vicariously hazarding the health of their offspring, immuno-compromised people and those in the population who while immunised have not retained full immunity(genetic oddities, improperly stored or administered vaccine, etc). The level at which herd immunity is reached depends on the ease of transmission, contagiousness/infectiousness, etc.