The "science is in" argument is a bit of a red herring anyway. I can think of many potential reasons to decline vaccination without disputing the merits of the science:
1. The fluid being administered to you may not be the same fluid studied by "the science". Maybe it has been tampered with, or not stored in suitably sterile conditions, or switched with another fluid by accident or intentionally, prior to its injection into you. Maybe the company that manufactured the vaccine did an incompetent or negligent job of same (actually not uncommon).
2. The technician may not administer the vaccine properly. Maybe they will do it in a way that causes injury (also not uncommon).
3. For some people, the administration of a vaccine can be traumatic. I remember in school, when we lined up for vaccines, there were always some people who would emit blood-curdling screams, and people who fainted, and so on. I strongly disliked the puncture of my skin myself.
If a disease is sufficiently obscure, the risks associated with the administration of the vaccine -- including uncertainty over whether you are getting the correct fluid, the skill of the technician, and the trauma of the administration -- could outweigh the benefits, which are likely to be nil.
As a practical matter, I don't have a strong objection to taking vaccines. But I reject the suggestion that deciding to submit to a medical procedure is a decision that anybody should make lightly and without thought.
I know others have already addressed your concerns about these risks but I really feel I have to say something about your #3.
The trauma of being injected with a needle is nothing in comparison to the trauma of dying or losing your immunocompromised loved one to a once-eradicated disease.
An anecdote:
I am a very difficult person to get blood from. The veins in my arms collapse the second they are touched with a needle, even if the phlebotomist uses one of the tiny butterfly needles designed for use with infants. This led to many many "traumatizing" experiences as a child/teenager, where nurses would try to take my blood and end up digging around in both arms for extended periods of time, alternating back and forth, trying my wrists and the tops of my hands. I fainted and/or threw up many times. By the time I was in high school, the blood drawing procedure went like this:
1. Doctor orders blood work, and prescribes several doses of a topical numbing cream usually only given to infants.
2. Regardless of the requirements of the test, I do not eat before getting blood drawn ever (so the puking was less likely and/or less gross). Unless the test was specifically required to be non-fasting.
2. Mom picks up the cream, applies it to both inner elbows, both wrists, tops of both of my hands.
3. Mom drives me to the blood drawing place at local hospital, speaks with the intake person and explains the situation, demanding their best phlebotomist and a room with a bench for me to lie down on (not sit -- couldn't be upright). Doctor's office has called ahead and made it clear that these are absolute requirements.
4. We go into the blood drawing room (Mom had to come with me every time). I immediately start having panic attack symptoms. Have to lay down and practice steady breathing techniques, squeeze the fuck out of my mom's hand, and usually attempt to answer her random questions aimed at distracting me.
5. If they actually gave us the best phlebotomist, they get the blood out as easily as possible and leave me to recover in a prone position for minimum 20 minutes after getting blood drawn. If they didn't give us the best, they end up digging around in my arm, wrists, hands. Getting another person to try. A crowd usually gathers offering various pointers. At some point I pass out and/or puke. It turns into a giant fiasco.
In addition to all the trauma that I actually remember, I'm told I was physically held down by two nurses and my mother at the doctor's office the first time I had blood drawn, presumably around age 3 or 4. I was apparently screaming "It's my blood, you can't take it from me!"
The thing is, I'm 23 now and I can get blood drawn without any of the theatrics. I don't even need the numbing stuff. It still sucks, and they still sometimes take a really long time to find the vein. I got really sick my senior year of high school and ended up needing blood tests almost weekly, for a period of about 6 months. At some point during that process, the repetition forced me to get over the anxiety/trauma.
Now it's like going to the dentist (which was also traumatizing, until I got braces and was forced to get over it) -- I sit there, close my eyes and focus on my breathing, and try not to look at or think about the sharp object invading my flesh.
My point is, kids find a lot of things 'traumatizing.' As adults, we tend to see those same things in a different light. Somehow I don't think I could get over my little sister dying because someone else didn't vaccinate their kid, though. That seems a bit different.
The diseases we vaccinate for are "sufficiently obscure"
because we vaccinate against them.A more general point, which I and others have made multiple times, but apparently needs repeating:
If you are physically capable of receiving and surviving a vaccine without serious (life-threatening) issues, you have a
moral responsibility to provide herd immunity to those who are not.
You do not have the right to rely on herd immunity and not vaccinate yourself or your children, because doing so weakens the herd immunity provided to those who truly need it.
