vaccines save lives.
You are not old enough to remember the “good old days”.
Measles kills half a million kids every year, and I’ve seen many kids die of measles in Africa and treated a child with post measles encephalitis in the US.
German measles caused many babies to be born retarded, blind, or deaf.
Polio cripples many (and in the pre Salk days two of my friend got it and were left with weak legs).
Whooping cough killed a baby when I was practicing medicine in the USA.
Smallpox was wiped out a few years ago by vaccinating the entire world (and used to kill millions).
We would see one or two cases of HFlu or Pneumonia meningitis a year before we got those vaccines, and some of these kids died or ended up brain damage: now these types of meningitis are rare.
When you read studies like these, they see the “good” points (a strong immune system) from being exposed and recovering from the diseases. What they don’t see are the graveyards of the dead kids...
When I was ~5 months pregnant, a friend had a little girl. When she went in for her 1 month post-partum check, she mentioned to the doctor that she could not wake the baby. The doctor told her to bring in the baby immediately. Since we were military stationed in Europe, arrangements were made to medevac the baby up to Germany for advanced care.
The baby died of meningitis before the medevac plane arrived to take her to Germany.
As a result, I was terrified that something would happen to my son. I checked him all the time, scared that he, too, would get meningitis and die.
Too many people just don’t realize the lifesaving properties of vaccines.