[Black Agnes]

I never said don't use them.

Just understand the escape mutant you end up with for non pandemic diseases in particular might NOT be the one you want to have.

The current circulating non-vaccine strain pertussis mutant has TEN TIMES the mortality and morbidity of the old one. Try for 100 next time?

You can vaccinate your 2m old and 4m old and every one else multiple times with the DTaP and still get the new one. And you'd better pray to whatever diety you worship your infant doesn't get the new one.

I'll quote the relevant line from the CDC abstract:

"Our results underline the importance of Ptx in transmission, suggest that vaccination may select for increased virulence, and indicate ways to control pertussis more effectively."

[My hearts in London - Everett]

There’s a lot to be said for breastfeeding and isolation at home for the first few months of a newborn’s life.

[dhs12345]

Or worse yet, get the old one and die.

Condensing it down...

Considering that there is a really good chance that the original strain might have been a death sentence for young children and the same would be true today if if a large percentage of the US population stopped vaccinating their children, it would be foolish to not get the shots because it MIGHT mutate sometime in the future.

It doesn't make a bit of sense.

[Valpal1]

I think sometimes the success that public health bureaucracies had with small pox has given them the belief that such eradication can be achieved with every vaccine preventable disease.

Unfortunately, it’s possible that small pox was a one of a kind eradication event that may not be as repeatable as hoped.

[dhs12345]

Another question: is a pathogen more likely to mutate if it lives in host or does it just randomly mutate outside of a host.

I would think that being in a host and surviving is was causes mutations. A pathogen reacts to or survives it's environment and if is survives, it becomes resistant.

So, following that logic, the fewer people who come down with the illness, the more manageable it is. One way to prevent people from coming down with it is through vaccination. Fewer sick people to spread it. What kinds of pertussis mutations might exist if we hadn't treated it with vaccines?

Antibiotics....

How much of the problem with antibiotics is that people don't FINISH the prescription but stop while the bacteria is still alive and the bacteria carries on that immunity because it survived.