This page was last updated on February 18, 2015.
Vaccinations aren’t needed to check disease; Colin Skidmore; Beaver County Times; February 18, 2015.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“After reading Linda Vetterly’s Feb. 4 letter, I’m curious as to why she cares whether or not people choose to get vaccinated in a world where medicine can combat most diseases vaccines prevent.
“I’m going to use measles as an example. The measles virus hasn’t killed anyone in the U.S. in 12 years. Without vaccination, you have about a .0000022 percent chance (roughly 650 cases in 2014, as reported by the CDC) of contracting the virus.”
[RWC] Since it’s been so long since the vast majority of us – including doctors – have seen someone with measles (rubeola), here’s a Wikipedia article.
“Even further, you have a .0000000003 percent chance (based off a recognized .015 percent mortality rate, also stated by the CDC) of your case being fatal.
“This means you’re more likely to be struck and killed by lightning, a .0000000086 percent chance (26 lightning fatalities in 2014, stated by the NOAA), than to die from measles. Not to mention that measles can almost always be treated with modern medicine.
“In the 12 years that the United States has been free from a measles death, the measles vaccine has caused complications that have caused a known 102 deaths.
“Looking at the numbers, why go out of your way to prevent something that will probably never happen to you?”
[RWC] For the sake of argument, let’s assume Mr. Skidmore’s stats are correct. Did it occur to Mr. Skidmore why his stats are what they are? That is, the chance of contracting measles and other diseases in the U.S. is so low because the vast majority of us get vaccinations. If we took Mr. Skidmore’s apparent position that we don’t need to be vaccinated, his stats would gradually become very different.
Using Mr. Skidmore’s logic, why stop with measles? Here’s a piece by the CDC Mr. Skidmore chose not to share.
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