Governments like to use the notion of "herd immunity" to push for mandatory vaccinations for children and adults.
One problem with this approach is that each vaccine will have different level of effectiveness, meaning not everyone who receives the vaccine will develop immunity to the target disease and exactly what percentage will is impossible to predict accurately.
As a result, we can't say there is some magical percentage of the population being vaccinated that will lead to "herd immunity". We can't say 50% is the magical number, or 70%, or even 100%.
Unless vaccines are able to provide 100% immunity against the target disease in everyone who receives it, we can't speak with any certainty about herd immunity or supposed vaccine numbers to achieve it.
This is why when numbers such as 95% or 98% are thrown about, you must realize these are nonsense numbers, literally plucked out of somebody's ass.
What we do find is that this "magic number" required for herd immunity keeps going up all the time, and is used to bully more and more parents who have doubts about vaccines into vaccinating their children according to government demands, often by force of law or through bribery, as done in Australia.
See also:
http://sharkasnotes.blogspot.com.au/2017/10/common-sense-points-about-vaccines.html
http://sharkasnotes.blogspot.com.au/2018/02/a-microbiologist-discusses-vaccines.html
One problem with this approach is that each vaccine will have different level of effectiveness, meaning not everyone who receives the vaccine will develop immunity to the target disease and exactly what percentage will is impossible to predict accurately.
As a result, we can't say there is some magical percentage of the population being vaccinated that will lead to "herd immunity". We can't say 50% is the magical number, or 70%, or even 100%.
Unless vaccines are able to provide 100% immunity against the target disease in everyone who receives it, we can't speak with any certainty about herd immunity or supposed vaccine numbers to achieve it.
This is why when numbers such as 95% or 98% are thrown about, you must realize these are nonsense numbers, literally plucked out of somebody's ass.
What we do find is that this "magic number" required for herd immunity keeps going up all the time, and is used to bully more and more parents who have doubts about vaccines into vaccinating their children according to government demands, often by force of law or through bribery, as done in Australia.
See also:
http://sharkasnotes.blogspot.com.au/2017/10/common-sense-points-about-vaccines.html
http://sharkasnotes.blogspot.com.au/2018/02/a-microbiologist-discusses-vaccines.html
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