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Again, I notice that a picture of a child with Chicken Pox seems to be missing from the list. Why? Because many have had it and few fear it because it was once a common childhood illness that parents purposely exposed their children to. As for the infant with Rubella, is that an infant who caught Rubella or a child born with Rubella because their mother had it? That’s a good case for vaccinating women of child bearing age for Rubella but not such a great case for vaccinating an infant. That’s a big part of the problem. They’ve gone well beyond Polio and Measles and Small Pox into diseases that aren’t nearly as much of a threat and are vaccinating children with them, in some cases, before the bigger risk factors (such as getting Rubella while pregnant — zero risk for my 1 year-old daughter) exist.

My list was not meant to be all-inclusive, so the fact that it is not means precisely nothing. Don't try to make something of nothing.

Also, the images I found were from a quick Internet search. They were not meant to be an exhaustive gallery of the suffering caused by disease.

But, as with most emotionally-driven folks on a crusade, you seem to have lost perspective. Now it's all about being right, isn't it?

Vaccination isn't eeeeevil. It really does work, and literally millions of people today owe their very lives to the application of vaccines.

Parents, get your children vaccinated. The cost/benefit analysis completely, clearly, totally and without a doubt demands it.

Parents, get your children vaccinated. The cost/benefit analysis completely, clearly, totally and without a doubt demands it.

The cost/benefit analysis varies by disease and vaccination, which is my point, and there are other reasons to oppose the use of certain vaccines (e.g., fetal cell lines used in their creation). And the ideal risk/benefit curve for many vaccines does not fall along the schedule mandated by vaccine promoters. The risk of Chicken Pox or Mumps if much lower for young children than old children and the main risk of Rubella is primarily to pregnant women, yet they give these vaccines to very young children (and have a Scabbies vaccine if that's a concern for someone who has Chicken Pox as a young child). Failure to acknowledge that all vaccines are not the same with the same cost/benefit trade-offs and trying to make it sound as if every vaccine is as important as the Polio vaccine is absurd.

Yes, pointing out the benefits of the Polio vaccine or Measles vaccine is a legitimate counter for someone who opposes those vaccinations but it's not a counter at all for someone who opposes the Chicken Pox vaccine, would prefer that the MMR be given as three seperate vaccinations, want their children to be vaccinated over a longer time period than the compressed schedule currently recommended or mandated, oppose the use of certain vaccines because they use fetal cell lines, or honestly don't see the cost/benefit analysis in favor of the benefit for their particular child and circumstances. Plenty of people are fine with Polio but oppose the MMR, the MMR as a single vaccine, the Chicken Pox vaccine, the HPV vaccine, the Hepetitis B vaccine, and so on for reasons that are very much reasonable cost/benefit reasons. And there are also people who simpy oppose the government mandate and think that parents should be able to decide what happens to their own children for much the same reason why conservatives oppose other government mandates and attempts to tell people how to raise their children.

And my larger point is that if the pro-vaccination people would lighten up and lay off a little and spread the vaccinations across a much longer period of time so that it extends well beyond the point at which things like Autism appear and stop worrying about vaccinating for every disease no matter how low risk it is (again, Chicken Pox), then it would be much easier to show that there wasn't a connection and parents wouldn't be forced into doing something that on face value just looks dangerous (giving their child injection after injection before they even turn 2). Shouting and people and putting them down sure feels good but it doesn't change minds and often just emboldens the other side and alienates fence sitters. Further, if it weren't for the people who oppose vaccines and think they cause autism, there wouldn't have been pressure to remove mercury from vaccines, which seems like a plus to me. So is this all about being right and proving the other side wrong in an all or nother battle where no middle ground is allowed or is it about the health of kids?

Chicken pox can have life-threatening complications. It’s about 1:2000 for children and 1:100 for adults, though some studies put developing complications (pneumonia, inflammation of the brain, etc.) at 1:50. Since vaccinations against chicken pox started in 1995, the number of both children and adults admitted to the hospital because of complications has decreased greatly. Not only are people saved from the misery of complications, they are saved from the misery of the disease and hospitals have resources freed for other things. Besides, if you’ve ever had chickenpox, you have a much higher likelihood of getting shingles as an adult. I’d rather have the vaccination and lower that likelihood.