Immunize a person against a particular bug, you protect
her against that condition.
Immunize enough people against that bug, you end up
protecting a huge community, much larger than the one that simple includes
those who were immunized.
That’s the beauty and power of “herd immunity”.
And as more proof of that power, a study just published in
the Journal of the American Medical Association
found that since the introduction of a widely-used vaccine in infants against a
virus called rotavirus, which causes severe, even life-threatening diarrhea
particularly in infants, the number of hospitalizations and deaths from
rotavirus has not only plummeted among infants, as you’d expect, but the number
of hospitalizations has also plummeted in toddlers, older kids, teens, young
adults, and even older adults, none of whom had been vaccinated against
rotavirus.
In other words, herd immunity is at work to protect a
whole bunch of people who have no idea they’re even being protected.
Vaccines work.
And they have huge benefits for the community at large.
