Thursday, March 14, 2019

When Individual “Moral” Choices Impact the Lives of Others… Badly


 


No more massive injections. Tiny children are not horses
—one vaccine at a time, over time.

 

I am being proven right about massive vaccinations—
the doctors lied. Save our children & their future.

When someone cites a passionate religious belief, a statement of a “fundamental right” or a widely circulated online mythology as the gospel – truth – there is no argument, no logical dissuasion that will refute the premise. There is a correlation between healthy skepticism and increasing levels of education; people taught empiricism – reading or learning based on factual texts and scientific experiments, which are the mandate of most established educational programs – tend to want “proof” in logical terms that they can understand. Others “just know” or “believe.” And are often wrong.

Education is a process that can be rigorous. Being smart is what you are born with, and one can be both ignorant and exceptionally intelligent. Education is what you do with the intelligence you are given. It takes time, effort, work and exposure to a system that is geared to teaching based on facts with forays into plausible theories. For those not afforded the opportunity to get a decent education, for any number of reasons, the skepticism they do feel is not about their moral belief system – the life assumptions with which they were raised – it is about those who experienced that educational process, a touch of disdain mixed with jealousy. 

You can tell you are in a no-win conversation when education is considered elitism. Yet somehow, those challenging this perceived “elitism” flaunt their ignorance as if indeed they were the true meritorious elite born to govern everyone else. It is simply an aura of moral superiority, born of arrogance not accomplishment.

They see owning a military assault weapon as a “fundamental right” citing a very distorted view of the Second Amendment. Mass shootings are inconvenient collateral results that demand that there be more guns in the system. They attack those attempting to counter global climate change as Godless individuals who simply do not understand that, under their interpretation of the Bible, after the Great Flood, God promised never to loose a global natural disaster on mankind ever again. To them, recently-experienced, historically horrific natural disasters – from some of the worst hurricanes, droughts, storm surges, raging wildfire and unprecedented rising average temperatures – are simply normal cycles that require no affirmative counter-action. And based on waves of online false proselytizing, Websites manufacturing “facts,” they believe that childhood inoculations are a fundamental cause of autism or other brain disorders.

The diseases that these required inoculations prevent, from whooping cough, chicken pox, rubella, measles, mumps, tetanus, etc., can kill. They are particularly dangerous to adults, but they take their toll on youngsters as well. Some states allow parents to opt out of inoculations for moral or religious beliefs. Nice First Amendment stuff – freedom of religion – but then innocents who do not share that belief pay a steep price. 

The most recent outbreaks spread by children who have no been inoculated have been measles. Washington State has reported 71 cases, and spreading. Mostly in Clark County, all traced to kids who opted out of getting those shots. Again, traced to kids who failed to get their shots, there were 145 cases of measles in Rockland County, New York. Here is how Rockland County describes measles on their Website: 

“Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease (in the lungs and breathing tubes) caused by a virus that is spread by direct contact with nasal or throat secretions of infected people (when a person infected with the measles virus breathes, coughs, or sneezes). Measles is one of the most contagious viruses on earth; one measles infected person can give the virus to 18 others. In fact, 90% of unvaccinated people exposed to the virus become infected. You can catch measles just by being in a room where a person with measles has been, up to 2 hours after that person is gone. And you can catch measles from an infected person even before they have a measles rash.”

The Centers for Disease Control have reported that, as of March 7th, there were at least 228 cases of measles across the United States (focused on New York, California, Washington, Texas and Illinois, states with big cities and large populations), on track for a possibly record-breaking number in recent history. So self-righteous people claiming a right to shelter their children from the perceived risks of inoculations, clearly supported by the President of the United States as the above tweets, never recanted, prove, are causing serious and possibly fatal harm to others in their community.

Even when children themselves want the vaccinations, some states require parental consent. “Eighteen-year-old Ethan Lindenberger appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Tuesday [3/5] to talk about how he decided to get vaccinated against the wishes of his mother, who is anti-vaccine.

“Lindenberger is a senior at Norwalk High School in Norwalk, Ohio. He gained attention in November by asking about how to get vaccinated despite the opposition of his ‘kind of stupid parents’ in a discussion on Reddit... Anti-vaccine proponents espouse a widely discredited view that vaccines can cause autism or brain damage.

“Lindenberger grew up without common vaccinations such as those for measles and chicken pox before finally getting immunizations starting in December. He described being pulled out of class each year and told he needed to get his shots, only to be opted out each time by his mother.

“Most states allow parents to claim a religious exemption to vaccination requirements for their children to attend school. Seventeen states currently allow parents to opt out of vaccinations for personal or philosophical reasons.” NPR.org, March 6th. But legally, he had to turn 18 to make that decision for himself.

For those parents making that “no vaccination” choice, let them accept that their children should not be automatically allowed to attend a public school system and potentially expose hundreds of innocent fellow students, teachers, staff, administrators and parents to contagion that the parents of these inoculated students have clearly decided they want to protect against. Why do outlier parents get the right to put people not remotely part of their inner circle at risk for misguided principles?

Italy is one nation that drew a line in the sand: “Italian children have been told not to turn up to school unless they can prove they have been properly vaccinated… The deadline follows months of national debate over compulsory vaccination… Parents risk being fined up to €500 (£425; $560) if they send their unvaccinated children to school. Children under six can be turned away.

“The new law came amid a surge in measles cases - but Italian officials say vaccination rates have improved since it was introduced… Under Italy's so-called Lorenzin law - named after the former health minister who introduced it - children must receive a range of mandatory immunizations before attending school. They include vaccinations for chickenpox, polio, measles, mumps, and rubella.” BBC.com, March 12th. That the United States does not have a parallel mandate is callous and completely irresponsible, traits that seem inherent in a fact-averse President of the United States, both an anti-intellectual elitist and a practiced purveyor of a false narrative to garner increasing support from his angry base.

            I’m Peter Dekom, and if scientific fact threatens so many Americans that they are willing to bury their heads in morally-questionable sand, why do they prevail and leave the vast majority of us with serious risks we absolutely are unwilling to take?
 


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