Reply #77: It's no fun sticking babies

[Warpy]

but they get that first stick in the newborn nursery to test for PKU. Surprisingly, they manage to heal quickly. However, it's distressful enough that vaccinations have been combined in one shot whenever they can be.

There are tragic stories here all the time of babies who were too young to get the first round of immunizations getting one of those rare cases of pertussis or measles and dying from it. This state is very good at getting kids their shots on time, even out on the rez, but cases continue to occur among infants too young to immunize and adults who have let their immunizations lapse.

The antivax movement is more from the fact that autism spectrum disorders don't present themselves until the kid is 18 months to two years old and parents think the vaccines the kid is getting at the same time are to blame.

People have a natural tendency to confuse coincidence with cause. In this case, it can have tragic results as outbreaks of preventable illness have occurred in places where vaccines are freely available, most notably in the UK and in Kenya. Children die of these "usual childhood diseases." It's why vaccines were developed.