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"If only there were a vaccine against the crazies, we’d rush it right over to the NJ chapter of NOW"
http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2012/09/refusing_vaccines_affects_ever.html#incart_hbx
Editorial: Refusing vaccines affects everybody, not just your kid
Published: Monday, September 24, 2012, 6:18 AM
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
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With cases of whooping cough surging and a growing number of parents claiming a religious exemption from vaccinations for their children, a Senate panel day approved a measure making the shots much harder to avoid.
If only there were a vaccine against the crazies, we’d rush it right over to the New Jersey chapter of the National Organization for Women. Apparently, this group has fallen into the deep throes of paranoia spreading through a small — but alarming — circle of parents who refuse standard immunizations for their kids.
Deborah Huber, the group’s acting legislative vice president, says it has taken a “vaccine choice” position, which she calls similar to its pro-choice stance on abortion. She recently spoke in opposition to a sensible bill, which would tighten religious exemptions for vaccinations, by comparing it to a woman’s right to an abortion.
“It’s consistent to say that, just as we don’t want politicians to deny our right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, we also do not want them mandating medical procedures that we don’t want,” Huber said.
This isn’t a stance the national leadership takes. The National Organization for Women hasn’t weighed in on vaccines, but allows affiliates to make their own decisions on side issues. This is the unfortunate consequence.
There’s an obvious problem with Huber’s analogy. A woman’s right to an abortion doesn’t affect the health of the overall population. But refusing vaccinations for your kid does. Making vaccines simply a matter of individual choice flies in the face of their purpose, which is to bolster “herd immunity” — meaning that, in order for the vaccine to work, it has to be given to the vast majority of the population.
This is how we virtually eradicated once-fatal epidemics such as smallpox, which killed an estimated 500 million people. Or polio, which, as recently as the 1950s, paralyzed 16,000 Americans every year. Because these diseases have fallen out of sight, though, people forget about them. Instead, they worry over the much smaller risk of an ill effect from the vaccine itself.
Mainstream experts agree vaccines are generally safe for most people. But the number of parents opting out of vaccinations, claiming dubious religious objections, has increased sharply in recent years.
Huber said she took this position because she knows people who say their kids were injured by vaccines. But what about all the children too young to be vaccinated, who have been sickened or killed by whooping cough or meningitis?
The idea that vaccines are dangerous has been discredited by years of scientific study. The seminal 1998 study linking vaccines to autism was called an elaborate fraud. Yet still, these conspiracies spread.
But when you put on the tin foil hat, don’t compare this cause to abortion rights. Because refusing a vaccination isn’t just a choice for your kid. It’s a dangerous choice for everybody else’s.
RELATED COVERAGE:
• N.J. Assemblyman rejects parents' plea for more say on kids' vaccinations
• N.J. assemblyman refuses to hold vote on vaccine exemption bill for school children
• N.J. doctors, researchers outraged by 'fraudulent' study linking autism, vaccine
• Study linking autism, vaccines is retracted by British medical journal
Editorial: Refusing vaccines affects everybody, not just your kid
Published: Monday, September 24, 2012, 6:18 AM
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
[img]
[/img]
With cases of whooping cough surging and a growing number of parents claiming a religious exemption from vaccinations for their children, a Senate panel day approved a measure making the shots much harder to avoid.
If only there were a vaccine against the crazies, we’d rush it right over to the New Jersey chapter of the National Organization for Women. Apparently, this group has fallen into the deep throes of paranoia spreading through a small — but alarming — circle of parents who refuse standard immunizations for their kids.
Deborah Huber, the group’s acting legislative vice president, says it has taken a “vaccine choice” position, which she calls similar to its pro-choice stance on abortion. She recently spoke in opposition to a sensible bill, which would tighten religious exemptions for vaccinations, by comparing it to a woman’s right to an abortion.
“It’s consistent to say that, just as we don’t want politicians to deny our right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, we also do not want them mandating medical procedures that we don’t want,” Huber said.
This isn’t a stance the national leadership takes. The National Organization for Women hasn’t weighed in on vaccines, but allows affiliates to make their own decisions on side issues. This is the unfortunate consequence.
There’s an obvious problem with Huber’s analogy. A woman’s right to an abortion doesn’t affect the health of the overall population. But refusing vaccinations for your kid does. Making vaccines simply a matter of individual choice flies in the face of their purpose, which is to bolster “herd immunity” — meaning that, in order for the vaccine to work, it has to be given to the vast majority of the population.
This is how we virtually eradicated once-fatal epidemics such as smallpox, which killed an estimated 500 million people. Or polio, which, as recently as the 1950s, paralyzed 16,000 Americans every year. Because these diseases have fallen out of sight, though, people forget about them. Instead, they worry over the much smaller risk of an ill effect from the vaccine itself.
Mainstream experts agree vaccines are generally safe for most people. But the number of parents opting out of vaccinations, claiming dubious religious objections, has increased sharply in recent years.
Huber said she took this position because she knows people who say their kids were injured by vaccines. But what about all the children too young to be vaccinated, who have been sickened or killed by whooping cough or meningitis?
The idea that vaccines are dangerous has been discredited by years of scientific study. The seminal 1998 study linking vaccines to autism was called an elaborate fraud. Yet still, these conspiracies spread.
But when you put on the tin foil hat, don’t compare this cause to abortion rights. Because refusing a vaccination isn’t just a choice for your kid. It’s a dangerous choice for everybody else’s.
RELATED COVERAGE:
• N.J. Assemblyman rejects parents' plea for more say on kids' vaccinations
• N.J. assemblyman refuses to hold vote on vaccine exemption bill for school children
• N.J. doctors, researchers outraged by 'fraudulent' study linking autism, vaccine
• Study linking autism, vaccines is retracted by British medical journal
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