In a recent bid toward public health and safety, Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced a plan that will cause thousands of Australian families lose thousands of dollars of childcare and welfare benefits if they ?refuse to vaccinate their kids.
Although many are jumping to say Abbott is stepping on personal freedoms, I couldn’t be happier for the land down under.
I consider myself to be a very tolerant person. I like other cultures; I think having multiple viewpoints makes the world a better place. Earth is just so much more interesting with all the different ?perspectives there are on life.
That being said, the beliefs some people have are just plain wrong.
The anti-vaccination movement is a perfect example of this. For those lucky enough to have avoided this terrible group thus far, the anti-vaccination crowd believes vaccines are actually the cause for mental health problems, such as autism, in children.
This belief system grew out of a scientific study done by Andrew Wakefield, a study that has since been widely discredited and mocked for its poor execution of the scientific method. The movement also continued to gain traction when Jenny McCarthy, an ex-Playboy model, stated vaccinations caused her son’s autism despite a complete lack of evidence.
But hey, she’s a celebrity, right? She must know plenty about biology and the effects of vaccination.
So why is this such an important issue? Well, like most things I care about, this movement is dangerous to the general population. Children who are not ?vaccinated have a much higher risk of developing complications from completely avoidable diseases.
The Anti-Vaccine Body Count claims since the start of this movement around 2007, as many as 146,623 preventable illnesses have been associated with anti-vaccination, as well as 8,973 preventable deaths.
Thousands of people dead, tens of thousands sick, simply because some parents heard Jenny McCarthy rant about a subject she knew nothing about.
When I look at these statistics, all I can think is my country needs the same kind of policy Australia just enacted.
Honestly, if you are so intensely afraid of science that you can’t take the time to critically look into the research behind vaccinations, you should have any and all governmental aids cut.
I don’t think it’s a step too far to have these children taken out of the public school system. Bringing a child who is susceptible to something like measles into a school populated by young and vulnerable immune systems is simply asking for trouble.
It seems these kids are being punished for decisions being made for them by their parents, but the reality of the situation is that we need to protect our children from this ridiculousness.
Everyone is entitled to their beliefs, but no one is entitled to putting children in ?harm’s way.
kevsjack@indiana.edu
