You're Still An Asshole, Lady

[Darkstar]

One of my conclusion is this:  There can exist situations where the parents behave optimally by not vaccinating their kids.  Vaccinations do convey some risk to those that receive them.  Its small but it is real.

I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you mean something like sever allergic reactions (in which case you might be right) and aren't implying that vaccines pose a meaningful risk to the general population.

Now there is a very real phenomena called herd immunity.  Basically if every other member of the herd is immune to a disease, its not very likely at all you will get that disease even if you are not immune.  Non immune members of the herd gain some protection by the other members being immune.

The problem is, not every other member of the herd is immune.



As you can see, some of the state vaccination rates are dangerously close to, or have already, dropped below the minimum required to maintain herd immunity from certain highly contagious diseases. Unless there is a serious medical reason that an individual should not be vaccinated, to forgo vaccination is not only stupid by socially irresponsible.