And you get a sense of what they are talking about, based on the things that are forbidden and the fact that when they move along, they have to move along at least two miles.

So if they don’t vaccinate their kids, they are an absolutely fabulous vector for communicable diseases.

I have noticed that more educated Brits are failing to immunize their kids because disease risk is low- because of course other parents have been immunizing their children, and they don’t want to expose their children to the possible side effects of the shots. My husband and I know well a young British scientist who justified her decision to not immunize her kids on these grounds, and who looks at parents who immunize with contempt. This ties in with her other “natural” parenting practices like home birth, extended breast feeding (squirting breast milk into the breakfast oatmeal), wearing the baby, and family bed. Of course, the more people who freeload off the immunization of others, the more likely these diseases will return.

Anyway, lest we get too smug here in the States, we face similar health risks with diseases once rare here imported unintentionally by illegal immigration. A public health nurse I know spoke of several cases of live TB in the public schools in Los Angeles, and nearly all health employees who work with a predominantly illegal immigrant population end up with a positive mantoux test. Unfortunately, a consequence of illegal immigration is that it is virtually impossible to track these diseases as they are brought in- a potential public health crisis.