Where to start? Post the statistics? Tell stories about my youth when the little girl across the street was confined to an iron lung for life? (Mercifully short.) Claim expertise? How about plain talk for a change.
Good thing there are plenty of anti-vaxxer cranks to counterbalance that view. I haven't really looked into it but I'll bet dollars to donuts the science is nowhere near as "settled" as someone like Godstud believes it is.
You are correct in admitting that you have not looked into it. If you had you would know that Godstud is correct. There is absolutely no ambiguity in the research.
It's probably a lot more complicated than the vague simplistic notions most people have about it.
It is. That is why you have epidemiologists whose lives are dedicated to arriving at the truth. And we are virtually universal in our acceptance of the data and our certainty that anti-vaxers are dangerous and profoundly stupid individuals.
I don't know much about vaccines
Obviously.
...but based on my experience with similar controversies it's safe to assume vaccines aren't as safe and effective as officialdom claims.
This notion is just stupid. It is not safe to assume that. In fact there are few areas about which we are more scientifically certain. There are two things you ought to consider before you make a stupid statements on this subject. Google "logical fallacy".
Then consider that you do not even know what the claims of experts are, not to mention understand the shear depth of the information available to real experts.
To the OP:
You seem to be advocating for a solution in search of a problem. Tell me again what it is you fear? You say you vaccinate your children. It would appear that you are convinced that this is the preferable course of action. Then you advocate for some kind of additional cost for the vaccines to accomplish....what? You articulate some need to take vaccines seriously and you are maintaining that causing people to have to pay for them will somehow increase compliance? Nonsense. It will do the opposite. And your children may die because of it. Do you want to know why? Let me tell you. Pat attention. The lives of children, including yours, lie in the balance.
Suppose you have your child vaccinated against measles; a potentially deadly disease. (136,000 people in the world died of measles last year.) She has measles vaccination. Now suppose some parental rights shit head decides that measles vaccines "aren't as safe and effective as officialdom claims". So they decline to have their child vaccinated. And he gets sick and gives the measles to your child (who is one of the three 3 in 100 who do not develop immunity) develops the disease. But you are lucky. Your child has mild immunity from their vaccination and only develops measles encephalitis. But your luck holds. Your daughter is not one of the 10-20% who die from this and
only has permanent nerve damage. So start saving money sport. You will have to earn enough for her to be cared for long after you die. Or would you prefer for the government to pay for it? That is it isn't it? You want the government to pay for your child because some monumentally stupid libertard (as if there was any other kind) felt his beloved parental rights are more important than the lives of his children and the lives of the people around them.
There is no justification for charging more. None. Nunca. There
is a great deal of justification for making vaccines mandatory. Yes some will die of adverse reactions. Depending on the vaccine a number of recipients will not be protected. But at the end of the day far far more lives will be saved from free mandatory vaccinations that will every be negatively affected.
So what does a DPH do? He gets his vaccines. He tries to convince others to do it too. Why? Because he knows full well that there is absolutely no reason not to.
That should be simple enough for anyone to understand.
And, just for the record. I am a religious person. Very. The notion of a religious exemption is stupid. It should not exist.