11 Vaccine Myths That Just Refuse To Die: Debunked

4. Myth: Herd Immunity Doesn't Work

Another perplexing argument against vaccines is the idea that vaccines don’t work in the way they are designed to work. Vaccines offer protection against disease-causing pathogens by essentially building a catalogue of diseases that your immune system will remember. If you are ever exposed to a disease-causing pathogen, your immune system will respond quicker and stronger rather than wasting valuable time figuring out what on earth is going on.

Herd immunity is what happens when a high level of people in the community are vaccinated against a pathogen. If 97% of the population is vaccinated to protect themselves and the few who cannot medically be vaccinated – a barrier is built within the community which protects against illness.

Wildebeest, for example, will protect the most vulnerable members of the herd by forming a protective barrier around them so predators can't attack. If a Wildebeest decides to go "I only have responsibility to my child" and walks away from the protective barrier into the open environment - not only do they increase the chances of the offspring inside the protective barrier getting hurt because there is one less Wildebeest to protect them - but the Wildebeest and her poor offspring are now out in the open, vulnerable to attack.

When the issue of herd immunity is raised, look out for the line: "Why are you worried about my child not being vaccinated? I thought vaccination worked?"

This is a failure to understand how herd immunity works. Herd immunity is only as strong as the number of protected people - as strong as the number of people protecting those around them. If a community is below a certain percentage of protected people, herd immunity is lowered, and more and more people are left open to attack from pathogens - especially if those pathogens evolve stronger and better than our best defences.