this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2025
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Average anti-vaxxer (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well, that highly depends on which vaccines are skipped.
Polio, measles and tetanus want to have a word with you.
There are more, but these were the first that crossed my mind.
I fear smallpox needs to be added to the list rather sooner than later if things progress the way they seem to do.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Polio is a great example, because:

  • 72% of people who get Polio never know they have it.
  • 24% develop a mild sore throat and fever
  • 1-5% get severe illness
  • 0.1-0.5% actually get paralysis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio

Compare to COVID-19:

  • 33% of people who get COVID-19 never know they have it
  • 81% who get sick (so about 54% of the total) get mild symptoms
  • 14% of those who get sick (9% of the total) get severe symptoms
  • 5% of those who get sick (3% of the total) get critical symptoms such as respiratory failure, which can lead to death.

All things considered, COVID-19 is actually way worse than polio. But people feared polio more because kids in iron lungs is way more marketable than old people dying (horribly, I may add.) People today will get the polio vaccine but decline the COVID vaccine, despite COVID being the worse virus.

Measles was somewhat similar: about 1 in 4 people were hospitalized, but only 1-2 out of 1000 died. Tetanus is indeed way worse, with 6.4% of cases leading to death, but it’s not an infectious disease and a lot of people will just get vaccinated post-exposure.

I think it’s clear why a meme campaign today that implied most people who refuse the COVID shot will die of COVID is flawed, but memers are using the same logic with the old illnesses and are thinking it’ll sway antivaxxers. The actual discussion needs to be a lot more nuanced.

I typically tell my patients that vaccines are the best way to protect themselves and their families, and that the best way to keep you from being sick in the first place is to stop the virus from circulating so no one can give it to you. And the way we stop viruses from circulating is to vaccinate everyone, so the virus can no longer spread.