In Reply to: re: did crc broadcast an anti-vaccination propaganda rant? posted by CRC Listener on October 10, 2009 at 14:11:54:

Well The parent of the four-year old child who died of whooping cough because not enough people in their community were immunised against pertussis would have cringed at your comments decrying the idea that everyone should be immunised. That's the whole point. But the anti-vax brigade sent these parents hate mail to make their point. Why would anyone associate themselves with this movement?

So you are against vaccination? But you benefit from the fact that everyone around you has been routinely vaccinated against polio, diphteria, small pox and the like as chidren? You benefit because these lethal diseases have been effectively eliminated here because we have reached the 'herd immunity' thresholds for these diseases. Vaccination works.

The whole point of vaccination is to give it to you when you are healthy and your immune system can gear up to fight the virus in case of future exposure. There's no point giving it when the person is already infected - that's useless.

So of course they want to vaccinate as many as possible - this is how these diseases have been eliminated - mass vaccination. Most diseases require over 90% immunity to prevent them spreading through the population. 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% is not sufficient to eliminate these viruses.

But the H1N1 vaccine is not yet available in sufficient quantities to vaccinate everyone yet so I think you are misinformed on that one. Ireland has also purchased millions of doses too and hopefully they will arrive soon - before the real pandemic takes hold affecting up to 30% of the population. If the pandemic comes first then the purchase will have been in vain for the general population although hopefully the most at risk people - pregnant women, asthma sufferers, elderly with chest infections are already being vaccinated. Also health workers that will be expected to treat the flu cases that will inevitably end up in intensive care are being prioritised and hopefully already immunised.

Your assertion that vaccination weakens the immune system is rubbish. There is a fundamental difference between vaccines and regular medicines. Vaccines strengthen your immune system alerting it to the virus - polio, cervical cancer virus, flu, etc. Billions of annual flu vaccines have been given and the risks are extremely well characterised. The benefits outweigh the small risks.