Germany's Low Vaccination Rates Lead to Measles Epidemic

"In the 1960s, vaccinations against polio and smallpox were compulsory in Germany, but responsibility for immunizing children then shifted from public health physicians to pediatricians in private practice"

"Most favor vaccinations, but about 3-5 percent are hardliners opposed to them, while another 15 percent could be swayed either way. The point is we have tremendously good vaccines today, which could easily eradicate measles. To vaccinate or not cannot be a matter left up to individual choice,"

"We can still reach the 95 percent threshold to eradicate measles without the hardliners, if we could convince skeptics of the benefits of vaccination. Then maybe Germany can meet the target set by the World Health Organization to eradicate measles by 2010," concluded Monks, spokesman for the Berufsverband der Kinderärzte, a national pediatric association.