Here's an interesting question . . . say a vaccine costs $500/dose. Say a given population tends to be susceptible, such that 400,000 new people enter that class each year (nurses, college students, doesn't really matter). On average 20 deaths/year will be prevented. That is at a cost to society of $10,000,000/death prevented (and yes, even if parents pay for it, it still means some of the resources of the society were put towards that use, doesn't matter whether it is government or individually funded, someone paid for it).
Ignoring side effects, only considering costs, do you still vaccinate your family members?
Do you still recomend to your patients they get vaccinated?
The reason I ask is because meningitis falls in this sort of catagory (I made up these numbers, but the idea is the same). And as a society we make compromises on the dollar value of life all the time. I.e we could require much safer cars, but they would be too expensive for many to afford, or we could lower speed limits, but people put a value on their time, etc. Just curious what people think.
Personally I would get my family members vaccinated anyway. Patients, however, I would make sure knew how rare the disease in question was but ultimately offer the choice up to them, not really make a suggestion one way or the other.
