>Nicholas, if everybody made the choice not to vaccinate, endemic diseases that used to ravage populations still would be with us. The only reason you have the luxury of focusing on vaccine risk is because everybody else has created a herd immunity that benefits you too. I'm afraid that what you and your friends effectively are saying is that your preference is to rely on everybody else to taking the risk you perceive so that you don't have to.

What surprises me is that this practice doesn't jive with the "world is a community" view. In fact, it is in direct contradiction to it.