[BostonCard]

We have a National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and a Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.  People take that to mean that vaccines cause injuries and other adverse events, and people are not good at weighing those risks against the benefits you mentioned.

Also not entirely wrong.  Vaccines do rarely cause adverse events; there's a reason that when you get the flu shot you are asked whether you have ever had Guillan-Barre syndrome (a rare neurological condition that can occasionally be triggered by a flu vaccine).  However, these events are very rare, and the risk of dying from the flu is much higher than the risk of getting GBS from a flu vaccine.  As you mentioned, people are not good at weighing those risks.  I also think there is an element of fatalism involved for some people.  If they get vaccinated and get sick from it, it is easy to attribute the problem to the vaccine; on the other hand, if they get very ill from influenza, it's an Act of God; people are much less likely to attribute that to failure to vaccinate.  I'm not saying that thinking is entirely rational, but it is surprisingly common.

BC

[BostonCard]

We have a National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and a Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.  People take that to mean that vaccines cause injuries and other adverse events, and people are not good at weighing those risks against the benefits you mentioned.

Also not entirely wrong.  Vaccines do rarely cause adverse events; there's a reason that when you get the flu shot you are asked whether you have ever had Guillan-Barre syndrome (a rare neurological condition that can occasionally be triggered by a flu vaccine).  However, these events are very rare, and the risk of dying from the flu is much higher than the risk of getting GBS from a flu vaccine.  As you mentioned, people are not good at weighing those risks.  I also think there is an element of fatalism involved for some people.  If they get vaccinated and get sick from it, it is easy to attribute the problem to the vaccine; on the other hand, if they get very ill from influenza, it's an Act of God; people are much less likely to attribute that to failure to vaccinate.  I'm not saying that thinking is entirely rational, but it is surprisingly common.

BC