Viral prosthesis
Last night I had the pleasure of listening to a beer conversation on the subject of childhood vaccination.
To summarize; there are middle class-ish folk that in a former era would have had their kids vaccinated but now do not.
The ‘why’ is interesting. I went on a forensic investigative effort and found that:
1. There is not the general trust of science as there once might have been. People listed all sorts of evil outcomes resulting the efforts of scientists including companies like Monsanto and their evil ways.
2. Interestingly this mistrust does not extend to the very useful and widely admired modern internet technology which is deemed (correctly) as disparate from science.
3. The distrust of science is in part due to an intensely negative stories of outrage as witnessed on morning TV, facebook, and the like.
4. The general population seems to have a poor appreciation of life’s hardships before the enlightenment and the advances that science has afforded us. And a weak understanding that the odd negative, resulting from the practices of science, are probably greatly outweighed by the benefits. This would indicate a failing of high school education to place the basics of history and statistics indelibly into the heads of the great unwashed.
5. Fear of loss of a child. Fear of a child not fulfilling it’s complete potential. Fear of failure as a parent. Fear of not having full social status. Fear, driven by marketing and media. Fear is the primary tool that is used to drive consumption in our society. It is no surprise that it has finally turned in on us.
6. A distrust of government agencies and their motives. The incrementally extending intrusion of technology and law into our daily lives seems to have left a lasting legacy of defeated distrust, even among those that thrive in the maze. In some this tips over into fully blown conspiracy theories but resistance to the agency of government does not require this.
7. And finally, the anti-vaccine types seem to have a complete disability to participate in a discussion of points 1-6 above with any semblance of logical thought processes.
offshore westerly 
Assuming its not a conspiracy the data seems pretty compelling
An estimated *300 million people* died from smallpox in the 20th century alone.
Measles In 1980, the disease is estimated to have caused 2.6 million deaths per year.
Reported cases[57] [58] [59] [60] [61] WHO-Region198019902000 20052014African Region1,240,993481,204520,102316,22412,125Region of the Americas257,790218,5791,755663,100Eastern Mediterranean Region341,62459,058 38,59215,0692,214European Region851,849234,82737,42137,3322,430South-East Asia Region199,535224,92561,97583,6271,540Western Pacific Region1,319,640 155,490176,493128,01634,310Worldwide4,211,4311,374,083836,338580,28755,719 Polio In 2013 polio affected 416 people down from 350,000 cases in 1988
Rotavirus “Rotavirus is estimated to cause about 40 per cent of all hospital admissions due to diarrhoea among children under five years of age worldwide—leading to some 100 million episodes of acute diarrhoea each year that result in 350,000 to 600,000 child deaths.”
Mumps There were 151,209 cases of mumps reported in 1968. From 2001 to 2008, the case average was only 265 per year, (after introducing vaccinations)