It takes a village to raise a child…well, not according to Jack Wolfson.
Wolfson, a Jewish osteopathic medical physician has been busy making the media rounds criticizing parents who vaccinate their children.
He doesn’t care if his kids infect others. “I’m not going to put my child at risk to save another child,” Wolfson told CNN.
So much for the village. So much for social thinking.
This anti-vaccination movement show just how dangerous populist movements can be. Get enough people angry about something, make enough noise, and suddenly you re taken seriously. Darn the science. Darn the facts. My kid’s got Autism and I can’t handle it? Well, it must be the fault of a vaccine, nevermind that there’s not a shred of proof for the argument. And let’s just pretend that vaccines haven’t nearly eradicated diseases that used to have long-lasting ill effects on people, such as, for example sterility in men. Had Jack Wolfson contracted measles as a child, there’s a decent chance his “pure child” would’ve been theoretical.
Now that illnesses such as mumps, measles and rubella have become so rare in our society, these hacks seem to forget that they still exist and can be extremely dangerous. Maybe they should take a trip to India, where there’s a resurgence of polio, or the many other less developed countries still plagued by the common childhood illnesses that quacks like Wolfson just wave off. Or heck, even closer to home, for example in California, where his comrades in the nonsensical anti-vaccination movement have suffered fatalities from whopping cough and measles.
Yes, it takes a village…but what happens when the villagers don’t care about their neighbors?
Read related IJN editorial, Chris Christie, Mr. Panderer
I cooked a nice Shabbat/Valentines meal today for my lovely wife and she was only able to eat a small amount before I had to assist her to bed. She has cognitive problems and has a hard time speaking when one of these bad cycles hit. When did these health issues start? When, as a chaplain at a major hospital she was required to take the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination. That put her in the hospital two weeks later and we have been fighting an up hill battle since then to keep her alive and functioning. My lovely wife was the top salesperson for a large corporation in the western US, a cantor at a synagogue, and a rabbinic student, all of that has gone away after the effects of a vaccine. The societal benefit of vaccinations is probably for the better but there are families that are sensitive and should NOT have vaccinations! If vaccinations are so “safe” why is there a federal disability fund for those harmed by vaccinations? (most doctors don’t even know of this fund!!)
Craig, I don’t think the argument is that vaccines are 100% safe. There are always the people who have a negative reaction. There are also people with immuno-compromised systems who are directed not to vaccinate. It’s really a public health thing: That the vast vast majority of people respond well to immunizations which means a far better public health situation. Sadly the phrase “statistics don’t apply to the individual” is true in your wife’s case and I do hope she is able to access that federal disability fund.