By Erin K. Costello “There were 3 cases of tetanus in California's population of 39,030,000 in 2015. The rate of incidence is 0.00000007686395081.” I’ll get back to this in just a moment. I’d like to first add to the claim above, two other statements, all of which are kind of true., to go along with it. There's a town in Brazil where if you live there, you will most likely grow mammary glands, and even fully functional ones at that. Nearly 100% of the town's residents grow breasts capable of lactating. Vatican City has one of the lowest, if not THE lowest, pregnancy rates in the world. Only about 0.4% of its residents are able to conceive and carry a child. Ok, back to the tetanus claim! Yes, 0.00000007686395081% of the state's population reported having tetanus. However, once you include more data this percentage varies quite a bit.
In 2015, it was estimated that 98.5% of California's population had been vaccinated against tetanus (DTaP). So basically, only about 1.5% of the state's population were susceptible to contracting tetanus. Your original number of 39,030,000 now becomes 585,450. Which means rate of incidence among the population that was at risk was 0.00051%. For granted, this number is also incredibly low, though not nearly as low as the misleading rate of incident first claimed. Without knowing how many tetanus exposures occurred during this time, we can't truly know what the rate of incidence is. Exposure rates are difficult to determine with tetanus since the disease isn't contagious. This also means herd immunity does not help keep people safe from this VPD. Nor is there such a thing as "natural immunity." If you happen to catch and survive tetanus you will not have immunity to the disease. You can catch it again and again. This is because the toxoid which causes tetanus, tetanospasmin, is so potent that even a lethal dose is insufficient in provoking an immune response. As a result, the vaccine contains inactivated tetanus toxoid. The vaccine is prepared by treating tetanus toxin chemically to render it nontoxic without losing its immunogenic properties. In other words, the vaccine is like a skunk that's been descanted. If you see this skunk out at night you will instinctively run away from the animal to avoid being sprayed. Neither you nor your body were made aware that the skunk was unable to spray you. Even though the skunk was harmless, the basic exposure to the skunk caused your body to react in a way to avoid becoming sprayed. The tetanus vaccine is similar in that your body will react to the immunogenic properties and will do so sufficiently to build up an immunity, without having to be exposed to the lethal toxoid. The vaccine fools your immune system into taking measures to fight off the disease and remember the disease in the future should you become exposed, without the disease even having been a threat to begin with since the lethal toxoid was rendered inactive. In the two examples I provided above along with the tetanus post, I also intentionally mislead you by omitting important relevant data much like the OP did in his post. The town in Brazil only allows females to reside there. Once you factor in this information the statistics make perfect sense. The Vatican City only allows women to reside there under special circumstances. As of the latest data there are 1,000 residents living in Vatican City, only 4 of which are female. I wanted to give the impression that almost all the women in Vatican City, which according to other societies this would be about half the city's population, were somehow, for some reason, unable to connive and carry a child. The tetanus OP wanted to give the impression that all the 39,030,000 people populating California had an equal chance of contracting tetanus if exposed. The OP must own a cherry farm since he has mad squabbles in picking cherries.
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