This is what happens when we deny science and the power it has to change our world forever.
Denying science is a sure way to move civilization backward by leaps and bounds and in this case, killing thousands if not millions through our ignorance.
America may lose its “measles elimination” status. It’s the result of an anti-vaccination movement that has been building for decades. https://t.co/JRvBz7falC
— The New York Times (@nytimes)
I never would’ve thought to see our modern-day Galileoes stood up in front of ignorant firing squads of anti-science know-nothings while these people infect (and in some cases kill) those around them.
I am old enough to have suffered from these diseases before there were vaccines to prevent them and I would have gladly rather been vaccinated then suffered from weeks of pain and suffering from measles, chickenpox, mumps and more.
Once again we see how, in today’s world, the actions of a small minority can deeply and profoundly affect the lives of those around them. Even worse, they don’t even care about the pain they visit on their children and certainly don’t care about the pain of others.
This is selfishness masquerading as parental care. They don’t refuse vaccines for their children but rather for their own, anti-scientific hostilities. I believe it is far worse to suffer the almost assured risk of a preventable disease than the small risks carried by vaccination.
I walk the talk, too. My son has had all his vaccinations and been Spared much the suffering of our generation. And for myself, both my wife and I recently took a measles booster due to all the anti-vaccination talk and measles infection in the Los Angeles area.
She works at public colleges and I am on campus and around large groups quite a bit myself. After the UCLA quarantine of several months ago, it became clear that we both needed to protect ourselves again since we received our measles vaccines so long ago.
I beg you to protect yourself and those around you and vaccinate your children and yourself to prevent pandemics of diseases like measles, polio, chickenpox, smallpox from ever occurring again. We deserve it ourselves and we owe it to the future.