Posted on 02/01/2015 6:03:17 PM PST by Jan_Sobieski
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. Their children have been sent home from school. Their families are barred from birthday parties and neighborhood play dates. Online, people call them negligent and criminal. And as officials in 14 states grapple to contain a spreading measles outbreak that began near here at Disneyland, the parents at the heart of Americas anti-vaccine movement are being blamed for incubating an otherwise preventable public-health crisis.
Measles anxiety rippled thousands of miles beyond its center on Friday as officials scrambled to try to contain a wider spread of the highly contagious disease which America declared vanquished 15 years ago, before a statistically significant number of parents started refusing to vaccinate their children. In recent days, new measles cases popped up in Nebraska and Minnesota, New York and Marin County in California. Officials around the country reported rising numbers of patients who were seeking shots, as well as some pediatricians who were accepting non-vaccinated families but were debating changing their policies. The White House urged parents to listen to the science that supports inoculations...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Watch for this issue to escalate, pitting faith based Americans versus their countrymen, conservative and liberal. This conversation is moving beyond the boundaries of private practice into the government, Local/State/Federal/Military who have for some time mandated vaccinations/shots that they have created. My question to people, are you so sure to put your family's health in the hands of a government committed to population control (where 1/60 children are autistic after vaccinations)?
As a Bible Believing Born Again Christian (not Christian Scientist). I seek medical care and have nothing against the medical practice in general, but we always try to pray first before going to the hospital. We would consider vaccination for a healthy older child, however for the children, we have to protect them from outside toxins. If people don't like it, no problem, we never asked for their opinion and I will continue to use my doctor who feels the same way we do about vaccinations.
But as a parent with many children, some of them grown, none of them have had vaccinations. To this date, all have been perfectly healthy without Government
“Illegal immigration”
precisely
Common sense tells me there are vaccines and then there are vaccines. When I was a kid I had whooping cough at 6 mos, red measles, german measles, mumps on both sides and chicken pox. Both my sisters had everything but whooping cough and so did every kid I knew. My best friend was an only child so when I got something her mother would send her over to sit with me in the sickroom so she would get it and get it over with. We didn’t know what autistic was.
The vaccines we did get and I think they are good ones were polio and small pox. I would add the whooping cough to that list as it is really serious and I was told I could have died from that one.
We are definitely an over vaccinated society.
Some things make me glad I didn’t have kids. Both sides of this argument are one of them.
“”The White House urged parents to listen to the science that supports inoculations””
As well the science that supports global warming/climate change whatever. Right - I’ll get right on that!
As many modern medical miracles, immunizations are good but not perfect. They aren’t a substitute for good health practices.
A vaccination makes catching a disease entirely preventable.
There is no good reason not to get one.
Whether its for children or adults is equally true.
I don’t vaccinate my daughter either...we’ve talked about we may not always have the choice, but I’d rather have the real diseases and get forever immunity anyway.
I’m so tired of the fear mongering and group think that on this one thing the government really knows best.
They hurt their credibility on science that way. I wish the science on climate change were as good as that on measles. If it were, it would declare the issue incapable of determination within the means of mankind.
Both are needed.
People who believe its God’s will for humans to be deformed, crippled and sick are anti-spiritual.
God gave us brains and physicians to heal us.
The vaccination rates in Mexico and the US are almost identical thus meaning that the probability that an illegal immigrant child from Mexico has approximately the same chance of having measles as America child.
Not letting a manufactured crisis go to waste in a power grab.
Question is, when your kid gets the measles, will you come here and whine about illegals?
“Id rather have the real diseases and get forever immunity anyway.”
Please explain how not vaccinating your kids impact your having the real disease?
I sometimes feel so old, and wonder how I survived at all.
In the 50’s, every kid was EXPECTED to catch chickenpox, mumps, and measles. In fact, if one kid came down with any of those during the summer, there was frequently a ‘party’ held. This made sure all the other kids got sick before the school year started. And yes, I've had all three.
We rode bicycles with no helmets, caught all the childhood diseases, played on playgrounds with merry go rounds and high slides -
how any of us survived is a miracle. And even stranger yet, people in my age group tend to have the best attendance records at their jobs. How can it be explained?
I agree. The best defense agains’t a lot of disease is a strong immune system.
Most people have no clue of what is in a vaccine and how it can affect them in a negative way. The doctor says take the shot and they hold out their arm and their kids’ arm.
This year’s flu vaccine is basically worthless because the scientists guessed wrong and the flu virus that mutated isn’t affected by this flu shot. But millions of people ran out and got one for themselves and their kids.
I have very strong feelings that the MMR should be withheld until puberty or later.. to give them an opportunity to be have natural immunity
The un-vaccinated children pose no risk ( or so they say) to those that are vaccinated ... it should remain a parents choice..
Literacy in Mexico is pretty high too. I’d guess illegals are quite a bit less likely than the average Mexican to be literate or to be vaccinated.
Given that this outbreak started at Disneyland, the most likely index case was probably a foreign tourist who entered the country completely legally.
My question to people, are you so sure to put your family's health in the hands of a government committed to population control (where 1/60 children are autistic after vaccinations)?
Ah, the crazy conspiracy theories. So, 1 out of 60 kids are diagnosed with a genetic disease after they are vaccinated? Gee, what about all the kids who are diagnosed with other genetic diseases, like schizophrenia, diabetes, cystic fibrosis (the list goes on)--should we blame vaccines for those, too, since the diagnosis always occurs after vaccination?
The "doctor" that published the Lancet article on the supposed link between the MMR vaccine and autism has been discredited and lost his license to practice medicine. He had a conflict of interest big enough to stop a charging elephant--he had a financial interest in selling a different vaccine, a measles-only vaccine. Plus, he was in cahoots with a lawyer, and was trying to establish "proof" that MMR "causes" autism so that he could rake in the money by providing "scientific" testimony for the lawyer who wanted to file lawsuits on behalf of parents of autistic children.
Measles and the other vaccine-preventable diseases aren't just benign nuisances. They kill. They cause permanent brain damage. One in four of the affected patients in this outbreak has ended up in the hospital because of the measles. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known. It is contagious before symptoms appear, and remains contagious for several days after the patient becomes symptomatic. Measles is airborne--you can catch it by entering a room hours after someone with measles has been there; you can catch it by walking past the open window of a room occupied by a measles patient. And if you are not vaccinated, you WILL catch measles if exposed.
I have utterly no sympathy for people who fall for anti-vaccine hooey. I have not seen that such people can be reasoned with, or that they exhibit any particular ability to understand scientific or mathematical concepts. I think that vaccine exemptions are way too easy to get. If a person wants to claim a religious exemption, they should have to produce a letter written on the letterhead of their recognized religious establishment, signed by their legally ordained bishop, priest, rabbi, imam, etc. And I don't mean ordained by some fly-by-night mail order place.
In Mexico and third world nations they are even poorer, vaccination rates are high as the government or NGO’s vaccinate kids in every village.
However, my expectations of educated parents in the US are higher than the illiterate parents in the third world.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.