More on Vaccines

Here's an article written by a woman who has a child with cancer and her take on the anti-vaccine craze. I think this goes back to what we were talking about in class regarding even IF vaccines cause autism is it "better" (maybe I should say less bad?) to have x amount of people with autism than to have y amount of people with MMR?


Even separately from autism, vaccines are constantly in question regarding their safety. There are always risks and possible side effects. It's a matter of weighing the risks and the benefits. For example, another vaccine that is talked about a lot in recent years and has created a little bit of controversy is the HPV vaccine. I think that this visualization does a great job of presenting probabilities to help people see the likelihood that they would be putting themselves at risk or benefiting from getting the vaccine.


Do any of you know anything regarding laws which require that kids be vaccinated before going to school and what has to be done to get around this? I know that there have been laws proposed at the state level to require that girls have the HPV vaccine in order to enter middle school and only a few of them have passed and all of them have included an opt out policy. I assume that the laws for vaccinations before entering kindergarten are similar but I really don't know anything about it.

Also, just out of curiosity: Have you guys received the chicken pox vaccination or did you get the disease when you were a kid or neither? I, personally, got the disease and have scars to prove it and I only recently realized that most kids now never get the disease because public schools require the vaccination.