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But also, we have a culture where if a child is sick or injured, parents will automatically be blamed.
It's your fault for putting them in daycare, if you loved them you'd stay home. You let them play in the rain, what did you expect? Well of course they got hurt, you let them play in their fenced backyard unsupervised.
Personally I find parenting culture so miserable I just opted out of it, but those who try to navigate it have all my empathy.
We don't usually talk about this in public health because most parents don't care about benefits to the community more than risks/benefits to their child.
I think that type of thinking is what helped destroy public health in America.
Something that I can't stop thinking about-
In June I listened to a (former) AICIP member give a wonderful talk. During this talk, he explained how it's actually more effective to reduce 65+ influenza rates by increasing childhood flu vaccination rates than increasing 65+ flu vaccination rates.
So yea, honestly your perfectly healthy elementary student might be just fine without the flu shot, but there's a huge community benefit to them getting it.
Please consider getting your kids vaccinated