Vaccinations: Who Calls the Shots?
Vaccine choice — whether to give one’s own children vaccines for various viral maladies — has become a household topic, even working its way into the presidential debates. The debate has been characterized by most media and many politicians as a fight between those who are concerned about public health and those who ignorantly disregard public safety, and endanger others via their decisions not to inoculate, because of overblown fears of vaccine dangers. But the controversy has not been accurately presented. As someone who has been on the front lines fighting for parental choice, it’s apparent to me that it would be more precise to say that the battle is between those who trust themselves to weigh the potential benefits and dangers of vaccines and those who wish to give the power to make parental decisions to the state (as if government is all-wise).
The year 2015 began with a media frenzy over a measles outbreak at Disneyland. It captured attention like never before and started a firestorm of debate. Thankfully, there were no deaths or serious complications. But that is not unusual. The Centers for Disease Control reports that approximately 0.2 percent of the measles cases in the United States from 1985 to 1992 resulted in death. In fact, it would have been unusual if someone had died, because no one has died from measles in this country since 2004. Compare that to CDC findings about the flu:
It is estimated that in the United States, each year on average 5% to 20% of the population gets the flu and more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from seasonal flu-related complications. Flu seasons are unpredictable and can be severe. Over a period of 30 years, between 1976 and 2006, estimates of flu-associated deaths in the United States range from a low of about 3,000 to a high of about 49,000 people.
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