The Case For Vaccination

Posted by | August 24, 2014 10:11 | Filed under: Contributors Opinion Politics Stuart Shapiro Top Stories

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Vaccinations work.  Emily Oster shows that it is important that everyone get vaccinated against Whooping Cough.

The higher the vaccination rate, the fewer the number of whooping cough cases — and in a regression, the relationship is significant. Going from a 95 percent vaccination rate to a 99 percent vaccination rate makes a difference in the number of people who get sick. Compare Louisiana, which has a vaccination rate of 98.5 percent, to Montana, with a rate of 95 percent. Although both numbers are high, Montana has four times as many whooping cough cases per person than Louisiana. The number of cases is small, but they show that even small decreases in vaccination rates matter.

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Copyright 2014 Liberaland
By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.

16 responses to The Case For Vaccination

  1. Abby Normal August 24th, 2014 at 10:26

    Whooping cough is a hideous disease. The victims suffer horribly and the fatality rate is very high. Sadly, there are some fairly prominent people speaking against vaccines. One of them is George Noory, host of Premiere’s Coast to Coast AM. Another is Mayim Bialik of The Big Bang Theory. Unlike George Noory, who has no common sense, Mayim Bialik should know better. She has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California.

    • jsutton August 24th, 2014 at 10:42

      Hey Abby, I remember you from Huff. Disqus is the next best thing, don’t you think?

      • Abby Normal August 24th, 2014 at 10:46

        Must be another Abby Normal. I had to post at Huffington Post under a different name because Abby Normal was already in use there. I think a lot of people were inspired by Young Frankenstein. At any rate, it’s nice to meet you!

        • jsutton August 24th, 2014 at 10:50

          thanks for answering! It’s your avatar pic I remember. You kept the same one, right? I was Juna on Huff.

    • Robert M. Snyder August 24th, 2014 at 23:33

      It’s unfortunate that we don’t really know what causes autism, or why its prevalence seems to be increasing rapidly. When no plausible explanation is offered, people start looking for their own explanations. When two things are correlated, it is easy for people to jump to conclusions. The best way to counter these explanations is to offer a better explanation. Parents are justifiably frightened by the rapidly increasing rate of autism. Until we know why that’s happening, I think people will continue to question the wisdom of infant vaccinations. Keep in mind that most new parents are in their twenties and working hard to put food on the table. They may not have a lot of time to research these issues.

  2. Abby Normal August 24th, 2014 at 10:26

    Whooping cough is a hideous disease. The victims suffer horribly and the fatality rate is very high. Sadly, there are some fairly prominent people speaking against vaccines. One of them is George Noory, host of Premiere’s Coast to Coast AM. Another is Mayim Bialik of The Big Bang Theory. Unlike George Noory, who has no common sense, Mayim Bialik should know better. She has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California.

    • jsutton August 24th, 2014 at 10:42

      Hey Abby, I remember you from Huff. Disqus is the next best thing, don’t you think?

      • Abby Normal August 24th, 2014 at 10:46

        Must be another Abby Normal. I had to post at Huffington Post under a different name because Abby Normal was already in use there. I think a lot of people were inspired by Young Frankenstein. At any rate, it’s nice to meet you!

        • jsutton August 24th, 2014 at 10:50

          thanks for answering! It’s your avatar pic I remember. You kept the same one, right? I was Juna on Huff.

    • Robert M. Snyder August 24th, 2014 at 23:33

      It’s unfortunate that we don’t really know what causes autism, or why its prevalence seems to be increasing rapidly. When no plausible explanation is offered, people start looking for their own explanations. When two things are correlated, it is easy for people to jump to conclusions. The best way to counter these explanations is to offer a better explanation. Parents are justifiably frightened by the rapidly increasing rate of autism. Until we know why that’s happening, I think people will continue to question the wisdom of infant vaccinations. Keep in mind that most new parents are in their twenties and working hard to put food on the table. They may not have a lot of time to research these issues.

  3. jsutton August 24th, 2014 at 10:41

    I even have friends who don’t think their children should be vaccinated. And if you look online, you’ll see a fairly popular book about how healthy it is to get measles. “Melanie’s Marvelous Measles” I think it’s called.

    • tiredoftea August 24th, 2014 at 17:11

      Yes, it’s the Yuppie Mom delusion, and it’s dangerous.

  4. jsutton August 24th, 2014 at 10:41

    I even have friends who don’t think their children should be vaccinated. And if you look online, you’ll see a fairly popular book about how healthy it is to get measles. “Melanie’s Marvelous Measles” I think it’s called.

    • tiredoftea August 24th, 2014 at 17:11

      Yes, it’s the Yuppie Mom delusion, and it’s dangerous.

  5. Graypets September 2nd, 2014 at 07:08

    Unfortunately, anti-vaxxers have a new approach. They’ve supposedly found a “CDC Whistleblower” who has proof that vaccines cause autism and that the CDC has been suppressing it. Last update I saw on this, Snopes would only debunk the part that the report came from CNN, not the part about the “whistleblower”. So Snopes actually gave the rumor legs in its early stages. Anti-vaxxers Are very dangerous.

  6. Graypets September 2nd, 2014 at 07:08

    Unfortunately, anti-vaxxers have a new approach. They’ve supposedly found a “CDC Whistleblower” who has proof that vaccines cause autism and that the CDC has been suppressing it. Last update I saw on this, Snopes would only debunk the part that the report came from CNN, not the part about the “whistleblower”. So Snopes actually gave the rumor legs in its early stages. Anti-vaxxers Are very dangerous.

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