There is a lot of controversy over vaccines today. What is clear that the number and rate of vaccinations around the world grew rapidly and this was very profitable for the pharmaceutical companies that produce them. It has been reported that vaccination rates are falling around the world and this reduces the profit margins of the pharmaceutical industry.
One of the topics often raised by those who push the narrative of vaccinating our population is the concept of herd immunity. I have been struggling to understand this topic and I want to share my thoughts with you.
What Is Herd Immunity?
According to Google herd immunity is defined as:
The resistance to the spread of a contagious disease within a population that results if a sufficiently high proportion of individuals are immune to the disease, especially through vaccination.
"the level of vaccination needed to achieve herd immunity varies by disease but ranges from 83 to 94 percent"
The theory is that if a significant proportion of our community is vaccinated for a particular disease (83-94 %) then the disease will not be able to spread throughout the rest of the unvaccinated population will not be large enough for that disease to spread.
This seems like a logical argument initially and if implemented will clearly be very profitable for the pharmaceutical industry. However upon further deliberation there are elements of this theory that don't make sense to me. Perhaps you can help me understand herd immunity better!
Medical Corruption
From my posts it is clear that I believe the pharmaceutical industry is very corrupt and I have lived experiences that have proved this to me. Previously I have posted on:
- My own experiences corrupting doctors for the pharmaceutical industry
- The rise in the rate and volume of vaccinations in Australia
- Pharmaceutical companies hosting 30,000 doctor events every year in Australia
So it is not surprising that I want to analyze everything the information they release and approach the subject with skepticism!
The Australian Standard Vaccination Schedule
I have already discussed this in a previous post but I think it is worth raising some salient points about the growing number of vaccinations included in our national schedules. To take Australia as an example by the time a child is 1 year old it seems that they would have been vaccinated with concoctions that include 32 different vaccinations. By the time an Australian is 70 years old the national vaccination schedule dictates that they should have been vaccinated for diseases over 98 times!
Here is the Australian Standard Vaccination Schedule for every man woman and child (I apologize for how many there are!):
I got this chart from here.
Why Herd Immunity Doesn't Make Sense To Me!
In my previous posts I was told by pro vaccination commenters several times about herd immunity and how important it is to achieve. However when I began to look into the subject things did not seem to add up.
Firstly there is the issue of tourism. If the percentage of a population that needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity is 83-94% how does the yearly influx of tourism into countries impact this concept. Lets look at a few examples:
Australia: Australia's population is 24 million people and in 2015 Australia received 7.4 million visitors. This equates to approximately 30% of Australia's population arriving during the course of 12 months. Flying regularly in and out of Australia I know that visitors are not vaccinated or checked for vaccinations on arrival.
UK: The UK has a population of 65.6 million people and in 2015 had 36 million visitors. This equates to an influx of over 50% of the population over the course of 12 months. I know visitors to the UK are not vaccinated or checked for vaccinations on arrival.
US: The US has a population of 323 million people and in 2014 75 million people arrived as tourists. This equates to about 23% of the population arriving over a 12 month period.
These figures do not even take into account illegal immigration statistics.
These statistics do not match the necessary vaccination threshold for herd immunity of 83-94% of the population. I am not aware of any country which checks vaccinations or insists on vaccinating new visitors. An approach like this would surely have a negative impact on the lucrative tourism industries.
What Does This Mean For The Concept Of Herd Immunity?
The statistics above are very telling and does not fit within the concept of herd immunity. When I have posed this question to the Steemit community I was provided two answers:
Australia is considered an affluent country so people coming to Australia must be rich and therefore vaccinated. As a frequent visitor to Australia I can attest that there are full planes arriving daily from places where are not considered so affluent such as India, China and Indonesia.
Tourists are spending time in tourist destinations and are not mixing with the majority of Australians. This also doesn't make sense to me as although Australia is large 85% of the population lives within 50KM of the coast. These are also where the many of the major tourist destinations are.
As I am very interested in this topic I am keen to hear from anyone in the Steemit community who can shed some light on herd immunity!
Images courtesy of: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Jockey loves you All - vaccinated or not!
