You can't blame parents for erring "on the safe side" when it comes to their children's health. Unfortunately, parents aren't always good judges of what the "safe side" is.
A recent increase in fear of vaccinations is a case in point. The journal Pediatrics reports that parents' philosophical and religious objections to vaccinations have been a factor in most of the tetanus cases encountered in a Stanford study. A growing number of parents have also become concerned about extremely rare side effects from vaccinations and are choosing not to vaccinate their children.
Tetanus, unfortunately, is an easily-contracted disease in the absence of vaccination. Stepping on a nail, impaling a finger on a stray swing set screw, suffering a puncture wound while playing with a piece of rusted metal all things that kids have a talent for doing can cause serious illness in the unvaccinated, leading to hospitalization and, in the absence of intensive care, even death. Being hospitalized due to tetanus is far more likely than serious side effects from vaccinations themselves.
Ironically, the Pediatrics report on tetanus cases comes almost simultaneously with another report in Pediatrics showing that children do not suffer negative health effects from the sheer number of vaccinations currently recommended, as some parents also fear. There appears to be no cumulative health impact from numerous vaccinations.
Failure to get tetanus vaccinations is, at least, less dangerous than failure to get kids vaccinated for highly contagious diseases. Tragic though it might be to see a single child in the hospital with tetanus, the greater danger is that the growing aversion to vaccinations will bring back plagues long thought conquered. The unvaccinated can become a risk to us all.
Parents are well within their rights to continue erring on the safe side where their kids' health is concerned, as parents have since time immemorial. But parents would do well to consult mainstream science when deciding what the real risks are.
