Firstly I am NOT a vaccine 'refuser' but made an informed choice not to vaccinate my child, a decision that is constantly reviewed as i continue to read and learn. To imply that my child may have or had some sort of infection that could cause illness in another is yet another way of trying to scare not only me but others. You IMPLY that i am not informed, that I am not intelligent, that we are somehow a threat. Non of these are true. So please stop such attacks as non are true. Those people who choose to vaccinate their child make their decision to do so and those who do not choose not to - every parent will make their own choice. I will not condone you if you choose to vaccinate your child however trying to state that any unvaccinated child is a threat is scaremongering, stating that vaccinated and unvaccinated should not socialise together is only discrimination, nothing more and nothing less. I respect your decision please respect the decision of my child and myself to make an informed decision not to vaccinate.
Tired

Tired,

No one is saying you're not intelligent.

What we're saying is that widespread vaccinations have eliminated many deadly communicable diseases that were once prevalent. This has come about because parents cooperated with the program.

While you may think it's neither here nor there to have the odd child unvaccinated, problems will arise if a greater number of parents decide they're not going to do it. It's all very well to sail along depending on societal immunity for your protection, but if vaccination rates fall significantly, these diseases with reemerge.

For instance, you say your child had such a strong immune system, that he/she was able to resist the whooping cough of the child with whom he/she was socialising. Maybe - or maybe not - you'll never know whether it was passed on or not.

What I'm saying is that if your child had been travelling through a community with no vaccination programme, he or she would have had many many more encounters with these diseases - and may not have been so lucky.

Tired,
I think you and others that do not vacinate should visit an older cemetary, say Gore Hill in Sydney where you will see hundreds of infants graves so obviously the infant death rate was high.

Alternately, perhaps google some records about infant deaths before and then after vacination became widespread.

Its a bit like comparing deaths from infection up untill penicilin was discovered and used and then deaths from infection since.

Nobody is saying that vaccination provides complete protection. That is not the issue. What the issue is is obeying the law of the land. The choice is up to the individual. Either obey the law and live within the community as a law abiding citizen or disobey the law and live outside the community spectrum. Either way you cop the consequences of your actions. Possibly you put your child's life at risk as well. Who knows they may decide to imprison parents who fail to vaccinate. If they do the do so within the framework of the law of the land and we can only change it at the ballot box.

Sorry Tired, but how can you make an 'informed choice' re vaccinations or immunizations when there is no doubt that these medicines stopped epidemics of communicable diseases?

Did you get the info from the "I'm not gonna vaccinate my kid because....just coz!" site then?
And yes, I would go so far as to question the intelligence of those who don't vaccinate their children.

Tired, you posted a reference and by their definition you are classed as a ‘vaccine refuser”’. You cannot play games. You either accept vaccinations or you do not. As you do not accept vaccination for your child you are declaring that you refuse. You cannot gild the lily and pretend to be ‘informed’. Your information might sound good to you but it does not stand up to scrutiny.
You say earlier, “You IMPLY that i am not informed, that I am not intelligent, that we are somehow a threat.” No, I did not imply those assertions, I stated them. You child is a threat to others. He is a reservoir of nasties leaching off the children that are vaccinated. And that is your choice.
But, as you are so strongly against vaccination, surely you do not object to parents such as me who will not allow your child into the same classroom as mine? Our rights are equal are they not? Your child ought to be in the class of ‘refusers’ where they can share their common viruses happily knowing their mothers’ are ‘informed’. Just don’t share your reservoir of bugs with my kids!

Geoffrey Kelley continued