Vaccinations--yes I am jumping on a soapbox again

I'm not sure what I find more surprising: that Germans, as safety conscious and detailed oriented as they are, do not require childhood vaccinations and have a relatively low rate of completing those, or that in the USA, where we technically require vaccination to attend school, the vaccination rate has fallen so low that in many places we are past the tipping point of providing herd immunity.

In either case, both countries have seen recent epidemics of measles (Germany in 2013, the US is in the midst of one now) that really should not be occurring in this day and age and in places with access to reliable healthcare.

There is talk in Germany about making vaccines compulsory for school (without the many easy outs the USA allows) and from what I can understand (as always, admitting freely that I miss many articles and don't always understand what I do see or hear) the two main reasons that Germany's rate is lower than it ought to be are:
1. Parents simply forgetting to take their kids in for the second MMR shot (this part would pretty well go away if parents had the reminder of needing to prove the kids had shots at school enrollment time)
2. A "natural medicine" movement in which some doctors feel children should have these diseases and build natural antibodies to them, experience high fevers while young to "get to know their bodies" etc (really people, really????!!!!)

Here is an article from 2013, written in English, that I found to explain a bit more, if anyone is interested:

http://www.dw.de/measles-rise-sparks-vaccine-debate-in-germany/a-16932413

Meanwhile, in the US many people are getting out of compulsory vaccination laws by claiming "religious exemptions" or personal objections (where such is allowed).  I know, from personal conversations with those who have done it, that many people have simply used this exemption, but do not actually belong to a religion which does not allow vaccinations.  So, I got curious and looked to see which religions actually ban vaccinations:  hmm it seems only the Dutch Reformed Church does (of any "major" religions, Dutch Reformed isn't even the main religion in The Netherlands and certainly not in the USA so major is kind of a stretch there):

http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/religions-state-vaccines/

It turns out that many parents claiming religious exemption (and in some states that is not even required, you can simply state you object to the vaccines with no specific reason needed) do not belong to a religion that is opposed to vaccination and some do not belong to ANY church at all (and anti-vaccination sites encourage this, see link below for one of many examples):

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/12/27/legal-vaccine-exemptions.aspx

So why are Americans REALLY not vaccinating their kids?  From what I have been able to ascertain it seems to come down to three major reasons:

1. Fear that vaccines cause autism (something ONE study showed and the idea took off like wildfire and even though that study has since been shown to have been full of false data and outright lies AND numerous other studies have been done which prove time and time and time again that autism is in fact not cause by the MMR vaccine, or any other vaccine, many people still seem to latch onto this fear. )

Here is a good link to an article about that which also links to many of the studies themselves:

http://www.autismsciencefoundation.org/autismandvaccines.html

Let me just repeat, in case you have somehow missed it: VACCINES DO NOT CAUSE AUTISM

2. Belief that vaccines are not needed and are just a "cash cow" for pediatricians and pharmaceutical companies.  This boggles my mind.  Measles, polio, mumps, etc were common, yes COMMON a century ago and the results were devastating to so many families.  I know that none of us parents making the decisions these days lived through that era, but it is easy enough to read about it, or talk to the elderly, who DID.  We KNOW vaccines are not just some money maker that doesn't work because they DID work, we did nearly eradicate diseases that once maimed and killed too many children.  So, even if they were huge money makers for drug companies and doctors, I'd still be in favour of them.  As is, they often cost a pediatrician's office more to give than the office gets paid, and there is such a low profit margin on them that very few companies will even make them these days.  They are not money makers, just life savers, plain and simple.
You'll find plenty of supporting articles about this if you google, here is one that sums it up short and sweet (and points out a number of other myths as well):

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/12-myths-facts-vaccines/story?id=20213475

3. Fear of a serious adverse reaction to receiving a vaccination.  At least there is some validity to this.  Serious complications from receiving vaccinations ARE possible.  Not likely.  Much less likely than contracting the diseases they prevent and having a serious complication from those, but still possible.
This is the reason that ALL US states allow medical exemptions from vaccination requirements; some people should not receive certain childhood vaccinations: usually people who have had a serious (life threatening) allergic reaction to a prior vaccination of that kind or to any component of the vaccination, are on immunosuppressant drugs or have cancer.
NOTE: this says "people who" not siblings of people who, people who know someone who, etc.  In fact, not vaccinating those who will be in frequent contact with someone who cannot receive a vaccine only increase the risk of the person who is legitimately unable to be protected, as well as putting these other new people at risk themselves.
Here is a link to CDC reasons someone should not be vaccinated, if you want to read vaccine by vaccine:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/should-not-vacc.htm

And really, all three of the above reasons can be summed up into one reason: FEAR.  Completely IRRATIONAL FEAR, fear not backed up by any science and in fact refuted time and time again by science and simply looking at history.

I see it as much the same type of paranoia that I was blogging about a few months ago (here: http://hadleyswanderingsandramblings.blogspot.de/2014/09/land-of-paranoid.html ).  A small, but much bigger than it should be and VERY vocal percentage of the population grabbing onto something big and showy and hyped to be afraid of and basing decisions on that instead of clear, overwhelming logic and science that shows a different picture.

Normally I find this unfounded paranoia about oddball things worrisome, but when it comes to vaccinations I find it infuriating because when someone chooses not to vaccinate a child due to totally unfounded and false fears they are not only putting their own child at risk, they are putting every baby too young to be vaccinated, every person unable to be vaccinated and actually all of us  at risk (vaccines are not 100% effective, but when enough people have them the herd immunity protects the few for whom they did not work or cannot be vaccinated or have not yet been).  And while you should have the right to make silly, fear based decisions when it affects only you, I really don't think you ought to have the right to do the same if it leads to an epidemic.

So I am really hoping that Germany makes vaccinations a requirement, and that German doctors and parents get better at making sure second doses and boosters are not forgotten, and I hope the USA closes the loopholes that allow parents to opt out for any reason other than verified medical (hey, I'm even OK if verified long time members of the Dutch Reform Church are allowed to opt out--it is a small enough group that the risk is not much to the rest of us).  And until the law catches up with this, PLEASE; PLEASE; PLEASE check that you and your kids are up to date on your vaccines and make sure they are getting them (unless there is a true medical reason for that specific person not to).

Thanks,

Hadley