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[–] bayesianqueer ago 

Anti-vaccine horse shit. Just the initial bit about diphtheria demonstrates this. Diphtheria used to be called "the strangling angel of children" because it often suffocated them to death. It is a horrific disease.

The diphtheria antitoxin was an amazing discovery a hundred years ago. In kids who got diphtheria it decreased the risk of death by 2/3-3/4. It was a lifesaving medical miracle of the time. (Interesting historical note, the Iditarod mushing race in Alaska is a commemoration of a mad dash to get diphtheria antitoxin to Nome from Anchorage when an outbreak happened and threatened the lives of hundreds of local children.) However diphtheria antitoxin is a horse serum which carries a lot of risks itself. Now if you have diphtheria, the antitoxin is a great bet - it's much more likely to help than harm, but this is not a benign treatment.

However, diphtheria is still out there and it is still a killer. The only reason that we don't hear of outbreaks more often is that there is a lesser percentage of people needed to be immune in a population to maintain herd immunity. Measles requires about 95% of the population to be immune to maintain herd immunity, where it is only 85% for diphtheria. So we can generally tolerate some antivaccine whack jobs and still protect us all from diphtheria. Unfortunately, in some parts of the US, 85% is starting to become the norm. All it will take is one family that takes a trip to Russia with an unvaccinated kid who brings it back and infects his classmates at the local Montessori school, and you'll see again how horrific this disease is. Even a child in a pediatric ICU tertiary care center who was luckily recognized early, and who had diphtheria antitoxin flown in from Russia, died from the disease earlier this year. Interestingly, that kid didn't travel. A number of his schoolmates were carriers who didn't have the disease because they were vaccinated.

However the link suggests that the death rate from diphtheria was already falling before the advent of the vaccine. This is true because of the antitoxin, however that is like saying that since we have decent EMS services and hospitals, it's OK to drive your car without a seat belt because even if you do get really fucked up, they will probably be able to save you. Diptheria toxin is that seat belt. It's cheap, effective, and one of the safest vaccines we have. To suggest that it's not worth it is insanity.