Inanna, just a quickie because indeed I have had enough of this thread for today: I wasn't referring to your decision when I commented earlier and it certainly seems that given the medical situation of your kids, your choice not to vaccinate might have been well made (I don't know enough about the details to comment further, obviously). It is absolutely clear from your writing that you are intelligent and passionate about this subject and that you have done a lot of reading about it.

In my opinion, the fact that some people cannot safely be vaccinated makes it all the more important that the majority of people are. Such individuals have no protection other than herd immunity, so herd immunity is much more important for their safety than it is for the rest of us. That's actually one of the reasons why my husband and I are vaccinated and why we are vaccinating our daughter, even for some things that she has no great risk of getting. My husband and I believe that we have a social responsibility to do that.