Irrationality and Emotional Decisions

Having children made us look differently at all these things that we take for granted, like taking your child to get a vaccine against measles or polio.  ~ Melinda Gates

This post is a little off topic, but I don't care.  I'm sure this will offend some of the hippies out there, but this topic keeps coming up on Facebook and in articles on the internet so I wanted to write about it.  Like they say, if you're not pissing off somebody with what you write, you're doing it wrong. 

Childhood vaccinations is what I'm talking about.  Apparently there is a group of people out there that think they are smarter than the doctors and scientists and are taking the miracles of medicine for granted.  Do these people know that the only reason that their kids are relatively safe from things like polio, whooping cough, measles, smallpox, and a bunch of other nasty diseases is that there are smart parents out there that DO vaccinate their kids? 

It is arrogant, stupid, and selfish to not vaccinate your kids.  These people are living in a land of superstitions, conspiracy theories,  and irrationality.  Up until recently, vaccines weren't available and millions of people died from diseases that now are nearly 100% preventable, but yet some parents think they are smarter than the scientists and doctors that develop and test these vaccines. 

I know most people aren't rational, but if you look at it rationally, the only way you shouldn't vaccinate their kids is if the chance that the kid will die from the vaccine (or get autism or whatever) is higher than the chance the kid would die from the disease without getting the vaccine.  The risk has to be higher than the reward.  Even if there's a 50% chance of dying from a vaccine, you should still get the vaccine if the chance of dying without the vaccine is 51%.  Just another reason people should learn more about math and statistics! 

That's not the case now, but it will be eventually and it will be because of the parents that decided not to vaccinate their kids.