Vaccination has improved people's lives and helped eradicate diseases

Rebuttal of Pro's initial points Pro has made a claim without citing anything specifically from his web links to back it up. The first link is simply a fact sheet about polio with very little else relevant to Pro's vaccine effectiveness claim. The polio article does actually contradict Pro's claim and the article itself: "As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio." How could children in all countries how could children be at risk if vaccines are truly effective? I was able to find this quotes in the polio article: "Polio cases have decreased by over 99% since 1988 The reduction is the result of the global effort to eradicate the disease." This is simply begging the question. Pro has claimed the effectiveness of vaccines and used an article, which makes a (similarly unreferenced) claim. I will provide evidence to the contrary that this reduction in cases is due to the effectiveness of vaccination. "From 1923 to 1953, before the Salk killed-virus vaccine was introduced, the polio death rate in the United States and England had already declined on its own by 47 percent and 55 percent, respectively." Source: International Mortality Statistics (1981) by Michael Alderson. [1.] This dramatic reduction in mortality previous to 1953 cannot be attributed to the vaccines effectiveness. In addition, it cannot be assumed that any further reduction in mortality was due to the series of vaccines. "Cases of polio were more often reported as aseptic meningitis after the vaccine was introduced, skewing efficacy rates." Source: The Los Angeles County Health Index: Morbidity and Mortality, Reportable Diseases. [1.] In other words, the number of cases of Polio is determined by how often it is diagnosed and therefore can be skewed by physicians In this case, the number of diagnosed polio cases did drop and the incidence of Aseptic Meningitis rose due to the fact that the diagnostic criteria had been changed. It is also possible that prevailing notions, such as the introduction of a vaccine, would influence doctors to be less likely to make a particular diagnosis. The point is that diagnosis is not objective and is susceptible to human influence. Pro's second reference is a link to a study titled; Structure of the measles virus H glycoprotein sheds light on an efficient vaccine. Again, Pro does not reference anything in particular in the article and as such leaves Con the task of finding the evidence which Pro is apparently making reference to. This, combined with the highly technical language of the article, makes an expectation of reasonable understanding of the content seem (to me at least) unreasonable. The extract of the study makes no mention of what could make the measles vaccine more efficient and, judging by the title, evidence for a potentially more effective vaccine in this article is entirely theoretical and not factual. Equating an understanding of the measles virus, and its genus Morbillivirus, vaccine effectiveness is a non sequitur. Argument for the Negative To argue the negative it must be shown that vaccines are ineffective which, when combined with their risks, will prove they have had a net worsening of peoples lives. For the sake of consistency, I will use examples of ineffectiveness in the Polio and Measles and vaccine. Measles Vaccine Measles outbreak in a fully immunized secondary-school population [2] "Only 4.1 percent of these students (74 of 1806) lacked detectable antibody to measles according to enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and more than 99 percent had records of vaccination with live measles vaccine." "We conclude that outbreaks of measles can occur in secondary schools, even when more than 99 percent of the students have been vaccinated and more than 95 percent are immune." Major measles epidemic in the region of Quebec despite a 99% vaccine coverage [3] "The vaccination coverage among cases was at least 84.5%. Vaccination coverage for the total population was 99.0%. Incomplete vaccination coverage is not a valid explanation for the Quebec City measles outbreak." Clinical and epidemiological findings during a measles outbreak occurring in a population with a high vaccination coverage [4] "From March 1991 to April 1992, 250 measles suspected cases were studied in the Municipality of Niter"i, State of Rio de Janeiro." "Vaccination status was known for 127 studied cases and 76.4% of them had received measles vaccine before their first birthday." "The history of previous vaccination did not diminish the number of complications of the cases studied." An evaluation of measles serodiagnosis during an outbreak in a vaccinated community [5] "A history of prior vaccination is not always associated with immunity nor with the presence of specific antibodies." Difficulties in Eliminating Measles and Controlling Rubella and Mumps: A Cross-Sectional Study of a First Measles and Rubella Vaccination and a Second Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccination [6] "The reported coverage of the measles rubella (MR) or measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine is greater than 99.0% in Zhejiang province. However, the incidence of measles, mumps, and rubella remains high." Polio vaccine Polio programme: let us declare victory and move on. [7] "In 2011, there were an extra 47,500 new cases of NPAFP. Clinically indistinguishable from polio paralysis but twice as deadly, the incidence of NPAFP was directly proportional to doses of oral polio received." [1.] The polio vaccine: a critical assessment of its arcane history, efficacy, and long-term health-related consequences. Neil Z. Miller http://www.google.com.au... [2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... [3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... [4] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... [5] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... [6] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... [7] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...