Can you put down your pitchfork long enough to discuss the root causes of the anti-vax problem?

[frazzled]

49. Oh wow, I don't think you are helping your cause

Really, you're going to throw in the Tuskegee syphilis experiments into your paranoical list of things to mistrust with respect to common public-health practices in this country—measles vaccines among them? Have you ever looked around at the hundreds of millions of people who have been vaccinated over the past 50-75 years for various diseases and asked how many died from those vaccines as compared to how many died before there were vaccines to reduce disease? I think you know the answer.

The history of vaccines goes back to the 1880s—farther even: the first smallpox vaccine was invented in 1796. We've completely eradicated smallpox, saving 5 million lives per year. And nearly eradicated diphtheria and polio, saving hundreds of thousands of lives per year. (See charts and statistics at http://www.unicef.org/pon96/hevaccin.htm)

Here's something to ponder: The CDC announced the first national measles eradication campaign way back in 1966. Within 2 years, measles incidence had decreased by more than 90% compared with prevaccine-era levels. See: http://www.immunize.org/timeline/

Measles currently kills 1.1 million children world-wide. Isn't that what should worry you more? Doesn't it scare you?

Being "overmedicated" has nothing to do with vaccinations. Vaccination isn't about personal health anyway: it's about societal health. It's about community. It's what liberal societies believe in.

Sorry, trying to "understand" why anti-vaxxers might be paranoid about vaccines is a fool's errand. And it doesn't make them right one little bit. It's like saying you can understand why Tea Party Republicans think the way they do. Well, they're still mistaken and wrong.