I honestly do not understand the line of reasoning that children with compromised immune systems recquire the herd to protect them (providing the efficacy of the vaccine even allows herd immunity to develop, and providing that adults are not considered part of the herd when there are issues of waning immunity, and that there is the nasty problem of no boosting of immunity with the wild viruses no longer in ciculation).
If I were the mother of a child who was unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons I most definitly would not rely on others to keep my child safe. I might feel safer if I did not see the disease on a regular basis, but I would be doing everything I could to understand how to support my child's immune system and tailor medical interventions to his/her specific needs. It cannot be said with any conviction that every outbreak of illness could have been prevented with a vaccine, as vaccines are not 100% effective. Perhaps the disease could have been prevented, but it is not accurate to assume it would have been. If a child with a compromised immune system contracted a disease from a child who had been vaccinated but had failed to respond to the vaccine, the effect of the illness would be the same. I do not think it would make it any less tragic.
Back to addressing whose responsibility it is to care for the health of children with fragile immune systems. I thankfully am not in this position so far. But I am sure that should I ever find myself in that position, I will be taking personal responsibility for keeping my child as healthy as I can. I will not be demanding another mother inject her child with a vaccine that has some chance of preventing disease.
I realise this is a very real and emotional issue, and that there are mothers with children who are immune compromised. And perhaps there are mothers in that position who are very concerned about herd immunity being compromised and thus compromising the health of a child. I just do not think I would invest that much in controlling the choices of others when there is so much more to that I could do to care for my child.
I do not think having seperate school would help the situation. In the case of measles alone, there are mathematical models showing that measles will likely re-emerge in highly vaccinated populations. The attempt to eradicate measles might not be quite that simple.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...225356116f4469
Quote:
| Using current estimates of duration of vaccine-derived protection, measles would not be expected to re-emerge quickly in countries with sustained high routine vaccine coverage. However, re-emergence is possible to occur several decades after introduction of high levels of vaccination. |
http://pt.wkhealth.com/pt/re/ajep/ab...195628!8091!-1
Quote:
| Based on a protective threshold plaque reduction neutralization (PRN) titer of 120, the authors estimate the mean duration of vaccine-induced protection in absence of reexposure to be 25 years (95% confidence interval (CI) 18, 48). After long-term absence of circulating virus, the mathematical model predicts that 80% (95% CI 65, 91) of all seroconverted vaccinees have titers below the protective threshold. |
Not conclusive, but worth thinking about when promises of eradication of measles are made and vaccines protecting the children with compromised immune systems.
