Where did that 95% figure come from?

Herd immunity is a myth. It does not exist. And in fact, the origin of the term had nothing to do with vaccines, disease eradication or even protecting people from infectious diseases. In the 1930s, herd immunity was used to explain why epidemics were cyclical in nature so they could be predicted. The pivotal researcher into this issue described how when a certain percentage of children had contracted and recovered from measles (approximately 66%), there would be a period of 3-4 years before another outbreak occurred. And this was because measles infection gave you something no vaccine ever can—lifelong immunity.

How can you possibly have herd immunity from vaccines when vaccines don’t convey immunity? It makes no sense! But the government today is saying that our unvaccinated children are somehow maintaining these diseases in the community—diseases that would have been wiped out if it weren’t for us refusing to ‘do the right thing’ and vaccinate. That we are preventing Australia from reaching levels of herd immunity that would see these diseases wiped out. That level being 95%

Where did that 95% figure come from?

When my son was little, the herd immunity figure that we were aiming for was 80%. But we reached 80% pretty quickly and outbreaks were still occurring. Obviously 80% must not have been enough (very scientific, don’t you see?) so, hey—presto, it went to 90%. A few years ago, we exceeded 90% but those pesky outbreaks were even worse (especially if we are talking about pertussis—whooping cough). Once again, the level needed to reach herd immunity was increased.  Now, we needed to reach 95% before the protection would kick in.

The first year we reached that Nirvana level of 95% for whooping cough vaccination was in 2008—the same year that our current whooping cough epidemic started—an epidemic which is still ongoing and is affecting any country that uses the whooping cough vaccine routinely. There is talk now about herd immunity not being effective until the vaccination rate is 100%. Does the phrase ‘moving the goal posts’ mean anything to you?

So the pollies and health officials who have been out there, pointing the bone at unvaccinated children and telling everyone that ‘vaccines only work if everyone does them’ are really just trying to cover up the fact that their multi-billion dollar vaccination programs are failing. And whilst many in the community have become sheep-like in regards to this issue, bleating about how our unvaccinated children gave their fully vaccinated little darling the measles, informed parents on both sides of the vaccination divide are refusing to accept such unscientific, illogical nonsense.

— Meryl Dorey, president of the Australian Vaccination Network