How do some intentionally unvaccinated kids get away without getting sick?

How does a pediatrician get away without seeing kids harmed by vaccine-preventable diseases?
Bob Sears on Hiding in the Herd
Most folks know the answer…
“And in my 20 years of pediatric practice, I have never once seen a child seriously harmed by a vaccine-targeted infection. Oh sure, I’ve seen kids get sick. And they all get better. And this is in a practice where most of my patients don’t vaccinate (or don’t anymore after one child suffers). So if anyone should be seeing kids get harmed from infections, it should be me, right? But not even one. “
Bob Sears
There are a few simple reasons that all of Dr. Bob’s intentionally unvaccinated kids all get better when they get sick.

For one thing, vaccine-preventable diseases don’t kill every single person that gets them! Even in the pre-vaccine era, most kids did recover. Tragically though, not all did. And not all did without complications.
That’s why we say that you have to earn your natural immunity.
Even more importantly though, since most other parents vaccinate their kids, his intentionally unvaccinated kids are simply at less risk to get a vaccine-preventable disease.
They are hiding in the herd – free-riding and benefiting from the herd immunity that’s provided by those of us who do vaccinate and protect our kids.
Mostly though, Dr. Bob has been lucky.

And so have his patients.
They are especially lucky that more folks don’t listen to him and instead understand that vaccines are safe, with few risks.
“Here’s the thing…it doesn’t matter if vaccines played a role in reducing the incidence of certain diseases in industrialized nations 60 years ago. Yep, I said it. ***Decades have passed and we’re STILL vaccinating like we are in a developing country and it’s the year 1900.***”
Melissa Floyd
Remember, it wasn’t that long ago that kids were dying from Hib meningititis, Hib epiglotittis, pneumococcal disease, meningococcal disease, hepatitis B, and rotavirus. You don’t have to go back 60 years or all of the way to 1900!
“I also warn them not to share their fears with their neighbors, because if too many people avoid the MMR, we’ll likely see the diseases increase significantly.”
Dr. Bob Sears in The Vaccine Book
And that so many people do get vaccinated is the only thing keeping these diseases from coming back at even higher numbers.
Even Dr. Bob used to know that…
More on Bob Sears on Hiding in the Herd
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