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From: tmb@talcott.UUCP (Thomas M. Breuel)
Newsgroups: net.kids,net.med
Subject: RE: Immunizations causing handicaps
Message-ID: <512@talcott.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 21-Sep-85 18:17:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: talcott.512
Posted: Sat Sep 21 18:17:30 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 23-Sep-85 00:14:28 EDT
References: <959@mtuxo.UUCP> <872@burl.UUCP> <2187@iddic.UUCP>
Organization: Harvard University
Lines: 13
Xref: watmath net.kids:2075 net.med:2437

In article <2187@iddic.UUCP>, rick@iddic.UUCP (Rick Coates) writes:
> The very best situation is for everyone _else's_ children to be vaccinated,
> but not yours.  Then you avoid both the possibility of getting the disease, and
> having any side effects from the vaccination.

This is not true as such. First of all, there are diseases which are
not epidemic, but nevertheless can, and should, be vaccinated against
(e.g. tetanus). Furthermore, if a significant fraction of the
population is not vaccinated against a certain disease, the possibility
of minor (or major) side effects of a vaccination may be judged
to be of less importance than the possibility of catching that disease. 

						Thomas.