Extra vaccine supplies and funding are being made available. An epidemic of measles - which can be fatal - could potentially affect up to 100,000 young people in England alone. The MMR vaccine protects against measles, mumps and rubella.
Experts say it is perfectly safe, but vaccination rates dipped following controversy about its safety.
...
Around 95% of the population need to be vaccinated to protect against widespread outbreaks of measles.
The current vaccination rate across England and Wales is around 10 percentage points lower.

It was only a matter of time before the anti-vaccine hysteria resulted in an epidemic. The 95% figure made me think of something. Assuming you are anti-vaccine for some reason; you are making your child dependent on herd immunity. Ergo, the more successful you are in getting people to opt out of vaccinations, the less protected your child is. For the safety of your child, you should be promoting vaccines for everyone else, not trying to convince them to follow your lead.

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Posted by sal on August 22, 2008 8:54:00 PM EDT #