If suddenly there is a true epidemic of a virulent plague and millions of people start dying, I'd probably consider getting vaccinated against that disease.
You'd
consider it? Seriously?
So if there was a resurgence of smallpox, you'd wait until
after it reaches epidemic status to
consider taking the smallpox vaccine?
Until then, the extreme views on vaccination, including taking away a person's right to choose, are totally hyperbolic.
Unless they aren't.
This is not an individual health issue, it's also a community health issue. There are many people who are unable to receive vaccines, because their health doesn't allow it or their immune systems are compromised. Vaccines are also highly effective, but not 100%; among other factors, the immunity can wear off. The more people who are immunized, the smaller the vectors for transmission.
Plus, we know that mandatory vaccinations have completely eradicated certain diseases, such as smallpox and polio. I have no doubt that for those diseases, compulsory vaccination was the best available option.
And when it comes to things like the flu vaccine, I don't trust corporate interests.
Good news! Flu vaccines aren't all that profitable. The profit margins are lower than other drugs, and they have to destroy all unused stock at the end of the year. They make a lot more money on boner pills and
drugs to thicken your eyelashes than flu vaccines.
The root of epidemic disease is unhealthy populations with inadequate resources.
Please, spare us such nonsense.
Specific diseases are spread by poor conditions -- e.g. cholera will spread in communities without adequate water supplies. Chickenpox, for example, is airborne and highly contagious; prior to the vaccine, it routinely spread throughout otherwise healthy people, including in affluent communities.
Look at the average American diet and waistline and tell me that we have healthy immune systems.
You don't get the chickenpox from eating Frosted Flakes. Before the chicken pox vaccine was issued in 1995, and long before Americans were as fat as they are today, chickenpox routinely spread throughout affluent communities.
Vaccines are a patch for a symptom that is part of a MUCH bigger problem. Nature will always adapt in order to cull the weak.
What is this, the Horatio Alger story?
Polio didn't spread because of sugar, or big waist lines, or video games, or a lack of resources. Polio wasn't stopped by kids exercising outside and eating right.
Polio was eradicated in the US because of a vaccine.
Obviously, certain specific diseases are rare today because of better diets (scurvy) and running water (cholera). However, vaccination keeps a disease like the measles in check. The potential harms of the vaccines are extremely small, and vastly outweighed by the harms of a failure to vaccinate.