Yes, complications from vaccination are very rare, but so is the probability that I will contract measles. Ultimately, the parents are in the best position to determine which risk they feel is of greater relevance to them.
You say that like there's no connection between vaccinating and the lack of danger. Parents who can choose not to vaccinate, in the knowledge that almost everyone else will, are free-riders. That's blatantly taking advantage of the fact that everyone else will take care in order to both put others at risk and expose yourself to needless danger. It's anti-social behavior.
It's like opting out of traffic laws because you're a libertarian.
I am not denying the possibility of negative externalities to parental decisions. However, it is ludicrous to imply that there are no risks whatsoever to any medical procedure, including vaccines, and certainly the parent should have the right to discriminate in their child's vaccine schedule based on their child's risk of coming into contact with those pathogens. For instance, unless your child is a sex worker, it is silly to have a hepatitis B vaccine requirement.
Children don't need to get every FDA approved vaccine and they don't. We don't give all children a plague vaccine. But, if you're talking about the MMR vaccine, there's no argument to have. Medical researchers have studied the issue and it's not a close call. Whatever the risk of getting the MMR vaccine, in a health child the risk are way, way, way lower than the risks of being not getting the vaccine.
As for Hep B, that's a stupid thing to say. The Hep B vaccine protects a child their entire life. So, they're protected when they're going to be sexually active. And, what's the problem with having a vaccine for a sexually transmitted disease? Is the point that an STD is God's version of slut shaming? What a disgusting idea, that we're going to let people get sick because they might have gotten an illness from dirty, dirty, shameful sex.
But, on top of that, Hep B is not just a sexually transmitted disease. You can get it from bodily fluids, the same way many teens get Mononucleosis from kissing or sharing a drink. Have you never kissed a girl at a party? Shared a drink? Do you think those are horrible shameful things that should consign someone to getting liver cancer? And indeed, almost half of Hep B infections are during childhood and not from being a "sex worker."
What are you talking about?
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Measles had been eradicated in the United States, so obviously it was carried here by individuals from nations where it had not been eradicated. While a critical number of parents failing to vaccinate their children could bear responsibility for the proliferation of a disease, the real culprit in this instance seems to be allowing a porous border enabling the entry of individuals from countries with greater proliferation of these diseases.
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I think people coming to the United States from other countries is just sort of non-negotiable. Are we going to not allow foreign travel to the US or immigration so people don't need to get a vaccination? Seriously, which is easier, eliminating immigration and tourism to the US, or taking your kids to the doctor a few times?
