Letter to the editor: Risk of not vaccinating

Regarding Susan Gero’s letter “Vaccine curiosity”: Common sense is that you can Google the reasons vaccinated people are at risk and how dangerous this disease is. It’s not big pharma! In 2017 worldwide, 110,000 people died of measles. It is deadly.

People with compromised immune systems — people with HIV, cancer fighters , people on immune suppressant drugs for chronic disease, etc. — are at risk (even if they’re vaccinated). Infants who aren’t old enough to be vaccinated and the elderly are at risk as well; as you age, your immune system is not able to defend you as well. I get both pneumonia vaccines, but still got pneumonia.

You are not informed or are looking for conspiracies. When an unvaccinated person is in a public place, others are put at risk. When unvaccinated people get on a plane to vacation in other countries, they are putting masses of people at risk. That may be your right, but it’s not very civilized or thoughtful.

Dorothy F. Otto

Hempfield