Warning: My reply is likely to offend someone who strongly believes that vaccination is wrong. So you might want to skip it so you can keep your blood pressure low. And I do not plan on replying to anyone who wants to address specific points. You are welcome to do so but I will not argue with you about it. And the mods may want to just chuck the whole discussion if it gets heated.
Many of the people I am acquainted with who are not immunizing hold two core beliefs about this subject that reinforce each other.
1. Immunizations are bad for a child because of _________ (fill in the blank - mercury in the vaccine, it isn't "natural", it causes autism, etc.)
2. The immune system works differently when a child contracts an illness (rather than receiving a vaccine) and that difference is important in the long term health of the child when they grow up because it will shield them from other health problems like cancer.
In my humble opinion, both these beliefs are specious and represent serious ignorance of how vaccines work, how the immune system works (as far as we know right now) and how herd immunity works. Admittedly we don't know all there is to know about the immune system so we are all left to take what IS known and apply it as well as we can. But we absolutely do know how herd immunity works and we have pretty good information on how/why vaccinations works along with lots of proof over the past century that it does indeed protect the larger community from killer diseases like polio.
Herd immunity is what is keeping everyone well so far. Those who are not vaccinating are being protected by herd immunity despite their risky individual choices.
As far as I am aware, there is no solid scientific basis for the assertion that their children have 'stronger" immune systems than the immune systems of vaccinated children. There is no proof that chicken pox parties (popular here in our area) do a better job of protecting children from other illnesses than having been vaccinated.
On the contrary, titers (blood test that shows that a person has developed an immunity to an illness) on my children who received the chicken pox vaccine were very positive so they are protected against developing this potentially deadly and disfiguring illness.
It is not enough to homeschool the children who are not vaccinated. Those children still go to the library, church, grocery stores - everywhere all the rest of us go. Regardless of their school setting they are putting everyone at risk. For example:
Although the rate of two-dose immunization against measles was 95% in the area (San Diego), a single case of measles from a 7-year-old child returning from overseas sparked an outbreak that exposed 839 people and sickened 11 other children, according to David Sugerman, MD, MPH, of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service, and colleagues. None of the 12 children, who ranged in age from 10 months to 9 years, had been vaccinated -- nine because their parents had refused the vaccine and three because they were too young, the researchers reported in the April issue of Pediatrics.
In our area, many of the pediatricians have started either refusing to take families who refuse immunization without medical cause (like allergy or immune-suppression) or aggressively attempting to educate these folks about herd immunity, the true risks to their children and the community and the scientific evidence refuting the specious arguments being advanced to oppose universal vaccination. I completely agree with this and hope, for everyone's sake, that they are successful.
As you can probably tell I feel pretty strongly about this issue. My son is immune-suppressed in order to control a severe, life threatening auto-immune condition. Many elderly people have lost a great deal of their immunity to diseases, even if they had them as children, due to the natural aging of the immune system. And the number of elderly people in our country is growing at a rapid pace.
Choosing not to immunize risks not only the health of the children but the health of millions of others. In the case of legitimate medical reasons for refusal - that is fine. That is a tiny % and will not effect herd immunity. Otherwise, there should be universal immunization.