On Monday, June 2, Voices For Vaccines was proud to join a host of other health-related groups in communicating to Congress the continued importance of immunization and our concern for unfounded fears that deter some people from obtaining potentially life-saving vaccines for themselves or allowing their children to receive the protection of vaccination.

We hope that policymakers will hear our message:  that the scientific consensus continues to support
vaccination as a key means of preventing disease, disability, and death.

Read it here:  Open Letter

We’re very excited to use this speedy way to communicate on vaccine topics of current interest as well as some that never lose their currency. We hope you’ll read and comment often. Consider adding our blog to your automated feed, if you have one, and you’ll never miss what’s new here. Let’s start the conversation with some fundamental thoughts about vaccines.

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Even people who have been vaccinated rely on high immunization rates for some of their safety from vaccine-preventable diseases. Why? No vaccine is 100% effective, and sometimes, a person’s immune system doesn’t react to a vaccine by generating immunity. That person thinks he or she is protected, but is not!

He or she will still generally be safe from disease, however, as long as the great majority of people in the community are immune - enough that even if the infectious organism is introduced into the population, it won’t find enough susceptible hosts to create an outbreak that continues the spread of disease.

This is the concept of “herd immunity,” and it’s why getting immunized benefits not only you but also everyone you encounter. It’s also why you should be concerned about the immunization rate in your community even if your family is fully immunized.

People whose vaccines didn’t make them immune are actually a relatively small proportion of the people who benefit from herd immunity. Most of those who depend on it are babies - they aren’t fully protected against many vaccine-preventable diseases until they’re toddlers, so before then, it’s the fact that those diseases aren’t prevalent in their environment that keeps them from getting sick. Another major group is those who have medical contraindications to vaccination. Not only do these people have to rely on others not to let diseases creep into the community, but they’re often at elevated risk of bad outcomes if they do get infected.

Herd immunity is just one of the reasons we at Voices For Vaccines are enthusiastic supporters of vaccination.