mobilesand

He makes a few decent points, but seems to misunderstand how adaptive immunity works.

Edit: also how vaccines work. They don't "give you an artificial version of the disease" to provoke an immune response. They expose you to antigens specific to pathogens in most cases. Sometimes you are exposed to an attenuated version of the pathogen, but the result is the same.

Amateur_Wizard

Attenuation can revert to virulence as we saw in the salk polio vaccine.

We know there are risks to vaccines, but there also risks to getting the diseases against which you get vaccinated.

Weigh the options and stfu everyone

un1ty

This is the point. Mandating something that has risks is a terrible idea.

Konran

What? Like crossing the road to get to school?

Everything has risks in this life. Like /u/Amateur_Wizard said (more or less) consider your options, make a choice, then do it, and if it doesn't turn out like you expected then just suck it up - remembering it was YOUR choice in the first place.

un1ty

You're still missing the point. Something that is mandated removes that choice. Mandate = required = no choice in the matter.

To recap - mandating vaccines when there is an inherent risk is not a good idea. No, this cannot be likened to using a cross walk or getting a license - neither require chemicals being injected into the body.

Konran

Okay, I agree with that - when something becomes compulsory there is no choice for the individual. I didn't read your comment properly - apologies.

But in regards to vaccines - where I live there is no legal mandate for the take up of those vaccinations, and we still have freedom of choice, which is something I will always vehemently defend.

un1ty

No worries. We in America used to believe this was the land of choice, however not so much anymore. The helicopter parented kids are now in college and demanding the government provide things that others typically provided themselves. There is a movement bred in fear to mandate vaccines - no longer having that medical choice. Its on par with the religious hats trying to impose their version of righteousness on the rest of us - removing bodily autonomy and allowing women to make choices on their own reproductive systems.

I'm not that old, but this is already not the same country I was born in.