Ineffective is not equal to dangerous or deadly. A (very) high probability of helping is still better than a small chance of dying or infecting the vulnerable. Medical researchers are constantly assessing and refining to do better and eliminate risks. The difference made by vaccine could not be underscored more by someone from a third world country whose parents saw a whole set of diseases being eradicated in their lifetime, diseases that once indiscriminately killed scores of children in their very families. For those citing improvement in nutrition etc. across generations, I had a classmate from an affluent family with polio (this was in the eighties) and knew many other such cases. Discontinuation of the same Polio vaccine by militants in parts of Pakistan in recent times skyrocketed instances of it.

None of this this matters perhaps in a first world country with little knowledge of the realities of the third world or memories of their own previous generations, and where shunning vaccines (or not) is apparently a political statement and rooted in some sort of conspiracy. As for scientific basis, I don’t think people are necessarily consulting medical journals or relying on the knowledge of the vast of majority of medical professionals who have studied and researched the subject. Lastly, it is sad to see the justified anger at big pharma boiling down to this one topic as opposed to far bigger atrocities in terms of price of life saving drugs - may be not that much of an issue for the rich insured section of the society?