For years, the stay-at-home mom brigade and radical religious groups have kept their children from being vaccinated due to the fear that it would make their children autistic.
What’s been the result of this line of thinking? An increase of fatal diseases.
According to The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the measles have gone up three times the normal rate. To give an average comparison, that’s 175 cases to its usual 60 cases per year. All of these cases were due to unvaccinated people who traveled overseas and returned with the disease.
Who are these people and what are their backgrounds? Some of them have come from a Jewish community in New York, others from a mega church in Texas, and more from a Hare Krishna group in North Carolina. All of them were linked to outbreaks due to their beliefs of anti-vaccination.
Overseas, the problem is more severe.
In Syria, The World Health Organization has declared a polio emergency. Syrian politicians claimed that they’d love to stop a polio outbreak, but they are just too busy fighting a religious war within their country’s borders. The problem with that excuse is that polio doesn't care about borders as it is now spreading across Turkey.
Other than radical religious groups and willfully ignorant stay-at-home moms, who's to blame?
Although anti-vaccine movements have existed for centuries, it’s celebrities like Jenny McCarthy, quack doctors like Andrew Wakefield, and fringe reporters at Natural News who are to blame for the current mass deception that vaccines are bad for us. People look to them as if they're experts and follow their example in spite of being debunked by real doctors and scientists. Still, these people won’t allow facts to get in the way and because of it, we and our children will pay the price.
Outbreaks are real and when the disease isn't dealt with quickly, people die. So should vaccines be a choice? If kids are not vaccinated, should it be considered neglect? After all, they are being left vulnerable to these fatal diseases. Should we honestly leave the decision in the hands of unqualified parents and religious loons?
Sources:
Measles Still Threatens Health Security
Notes from the Field: Measles Outbreak Among Members of a Religious Community — Brooklyn, New York, March–June 2013
Anti-Vaccine Mega Church Linked to Texas Measles Outbreak
Notes from the Field: Measles Outbreak Associated with a Traveler Returning from India — North Carolina, April–May 2013
Autism and Vaccines
As Polio Spreads In Syria, Politics Thwarts Vaccination Efforts
Vaccine disinformation: Katie Couric on HPV and Jenny McCarthy on autism