The Providence (R.I.) Journal, Feb. 6:
When it comes to their children’s health, most parents are highly concerned about making the best choices. But a new and deplorable anti-vaccine movement has helped fan an outbreak of measles, potentially far more dangerous to children than time-tested vaccines. Parents who eschew vaccination for the sake of their own are endangering others.
In December, the highly contagious illness popped up at Disneyland, in California. It has now spread to 14 states, with 84 cases confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Outbreaks in other regions of the world, including Europe, are widespread, and in recent years have caused many of the cases brought to the United States. (Last year, according to The Washington Post, most cases brought in from outside were from the Philippines.) Last year was this country’s worst for measles in a decade, with 644 cases. And yet 15 years ago, thanks to vaccination, the disease had effectively been eliminated.
For common childhood diseases, the CDC sets vaccination-rate goals at 90 percent. That is believed to be enough to keep such ailments as measles, chicken pox and whooping cough from spreading. But the percentages of unvaccinated children have crept up, undermining public safety.
Some parents reject vaccination on religious grounds. Others, placing their faith in a wholesome natural environment and organic foods, fear that vaccines may actually harm their children’s health. In the late 1990s, a report linking childhood vaccines with autism helped spawn this fear. The report has long since been debunked, but suspicion lingers.
Some in the anti-vaccine camp point out that though measles is a serious disease, children do manage to weather it. Yet measles can be lethal. It is particularly dangerous to infants too young to be vaccinated. Before vaccination became common in this country, in the 1960s, measles caused 400 to 500 deaths per year.
A backlash is now forming. Some parents are refusing to take their children to doctors who treat unvaccinated patients. Pediatric practices are considering refusing those patients. In some California school districts, unvaccinated students have been forbidden to attend class.
President Obama has urged Americans to get their children vaccinated, as he says he has done. Other leaders should join him. Time has proved a range of standard childhood vaccines safe. Those who cling to a “natural” upbringing for their children may mean well, but their beliefs can literally sicken others.
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