Kids and vaccinations
Jeff Nolan really hits the nail on the head here. I’ve witnessed the attitude he describes firsthand, and it fills me with horror. You can’t tell people how to raise their kids, though, so it’s tricky.
The people most likely to not have their children vaccinated are well educated and affluent, the same people who rail against the anti-science sentiments in Washington…
The aspect of this that should be shocking is the ability of smart people to allow their children to be exposed to serious diseases just because a false sense of security is created from the rarity of such diseases. Nonetheless, these are contagious diseases that can spread rapidly through a population of unvaccinated children, who along with the elderly are always the most at-risk group.
I suspect that if parents actually witnessed the trauma of a child with the measles, whooping cough, or polio, that they might not be so cavalier as to suggest that their children don’t need immunization. I also suspect that in years to come we will see more outbreaks serious diseases among populations of unvaccinated children and that’s really heartbreaking because it is so unnecessary and diseases that were once close to eradication will rebound as a consequence.
Filed under: Life