Jhonny's parents 'believe' vax are unnecessary so he skips the needle. A few years later he goes to a school with mostly vax kids. Naturally, on such healthy environment there is nothing for Jhonny to catch so he grows strong and healthy. His parents conclude that their belief was correct completely ignoring the fact that un-vax Jhonny never encounter a threat to actually 'prove' that vax are not needed.<p>Jhonny's mom finds a better job so they move, this time they relocate to a community with a higher concentration of anti-vax parents. Summer's over, back to school, a few weeks in: boom a measles outbreak! Jhonny gets sick :(<p>What went wrong?
>"They love their kids no less than anyone else and sincerely want to protect them from harm. They are not trying to selfishly ride the herd immunity. They are not willfully endangering the health of the other kids."<p>Oh, really? Willfully allowing your child to become a vector that enables the spread of disease to other people, including those that have legitimate reasons to depend on herd immunity rather than vaccinations (i.e., those that take immunosuppressant drugs after transplant operations, or those with otherwise compromised immune systems) doesn't count as willful endangerment?<p>That's nonsense. The anti-vaxxer community operates from a moral low ground, and deserve to be held accountable for the grave public health risks they create.
I thought the main charge of the anti-vax group was the, now debunked, thimerosal-autism link. Is that not the case? No doubt that pharmaceutical companies have a history of spreading disinformation for profit. What is the solution? I believe greater openness and greater CDC oversight of independent trials is the only way. Much of the work requires very long term studies and the public is not willing to wait.
I call blatant ignoring of facts, science, and numerous pleas from pediatricians supporting vaccinations as stupidity. What other word in the English language fits that description?