As I don’t have children yet, I’ll probably get a bit of flack for writing this, and that’s OK, but I honestly don’t understand the culture around the anti-vaccination movement.
Measles isn’t a disease a person typically hears about these days, but it came roaring back when an outbreak in California was reported in late December.
According to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this year, as of Feb. 6, 121 cases have been documented in 17 states, including our neighbors South Dakota, Utah and Nebraska. In fact, 2014 saw the highest number of measles infections since 2000, with 644 cases reported in 27 states. In 2013, just under 200 cases were reported and the year before that, just more than 50.
While measles is the current headline grabber du jour, other life threatening diseases could just as easily strike at unvaccinated populations.
Which brings me to wonder why people don’t believe in vaccinating their children.
It just doesn’t make much sense. The tired argument of vaccinations being a cause for autism has been disproven and, in my mind at least, vaccines safeguarding against deadly diseases outweighs whatever minute risks, both real and imagined, come with a vaccine. What’s more, it seems a strange world to live in when a former Playboy playmate’s impassioned crusade against vaccination has as much validity in the public consciousness as collected volumes of medical information.
The infinitely idiotic Glenn Beck even proposed the outbreak is a hoax to increase government control. I’m sure more than a few people believed him because he is a voice of authority because of his ability to speak endlessly into a microphone.
I realize there are some people who cannot be vaccinated. I remember reading about one child who is recovering from leukemia who is unable to receive vaccination shots because of his compromised immune system.
His father requested his local school board to require all students in the district to have their vaccinations as unvaccinated children pose a serious health risk to his son. While I disagree with them, I do respect religious objections to vaccination, especially if it’s part of a strict religious lifestyle for the person.
However, declining to vaccinate children on the grounds that it isn’t natural or that it’s poison, is complete poppycock. Younger generations haven’t had to see their friends or family die from a disease like polio or small pox and I think that may have something to do with decreased rates of vaccination.
More importantly, people against vaccinations not only endanger themselves and others by not protecting themselves against preventable diseases, they erode progress that decades of scientific inquiry have brought.
Such decisions take us back to a time when the medicine man would try to cure illness by burning grass and offerings to a supernatural plane of existence. They cause people to trust the modern equivalent of snake oil salesmen and their wondrous potions to instantly relieve and cure all sorts of disease and conditions.
In short, welcome to the dark ages.
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