In This Article
30-Second Summary
Headline Link: ‘Public Health Risk Seen as Parents Reject Vaccines’
Video: 'Parents Fearing Vaccines May Be Putting Children At Risk'
Background: ‘Court Rules that Vaccine Made Girl Autistic’
Reaction: Vaccine skeptics or 'sociopaths'
Related Topic: ‘Belgium Threatens to Jail Parents Who Refuse to Vaccinate Children’
Reference: Using the Web to Understand Autism
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Outbreaks Follow as U.S. Parents Reject Vaccines
by
findingDulcinea Staff
As more parents decide against vaccinating their children, outbreaks of measles and other preventable illnesses are cropping up around the country.
30-Second Summary
Some uncommon and potentially fatal childhood diseases are making a comeback around the United States because parents have chosen to skip vaccinations for their children out of a concern that the shots aren't safe.
Every state allows vaccination exemptions, with most permitting parents to opt out of mandatory vaccinations for religious reasons.
But an increasing number of parents are objecting to the inoculations because of “the unproven notion that vaccines are linked to autism and other disorders,” The New York Times reports.
This idea recently gained ground after the U.S. government decided to compensate a family after vaccines contributed to their child’s autism-like disorder.
However, those who encourage vaccination say there is no conclusive link between inoculations and autism, arguing that vaccines are wrongly implicated because autism is diagnosed around the same time a child receives the shots.
Other countries have used extreme measures, including imprisonment, to ensure people are vaccinated against polio.
In the United States, the debate is heated. Some accuse the government of conducting an experiment on children by requiring vaccinations and tying health insurance for the poor to compliance.
Others call the parents who refuse vaccines “sociopaths” for knowingly allowing their children to potentially infect others.
Every state allows vaccination exemptions, with most permitting parents to opt out of mandatory vaccinations for religious reasons.
But an increasing number of parents are objecting to the inoculations because of “the unproven notion that vaccines are linked to autism and other disorders,” The New York Times reports.
This idea recently gained ground after the U.S. government decided to compensate a family after vaccines contributed to their child’s autism-like disorder.
However, those who encourage vaccination say there is no conclusive link between inoculations and autism, arguing that vaccines are wrongly implicated because autism is diagnosed around the same time a child receives the shots.
Other countries have used extreme measures, including imprisonment, to ensure people are vaccinated against polio.
In the United States, the debate is heated. Some accuse the government of conducting an experiment on children by requiring vaccinations and tying health insurance for the poor to compliance.
Others call the parents who refuse vaccines “sociopaths” for knowingly allowing their children to potentially infect others.
Headline Link: ‘Public Health Risk Seen as Parents Reject Vaccines’
More and more parents are deciding to forego routine vaccinations for their children. Public health officials say unvaccinated children pose a risk not only to themselves, but also to other children who are too young to be vaccinated. Sybil Carlson, a parent whose child attends a San Diego school where kids recently had measles, said she “refuses to sacrifice her child to the greater good.” She said she is concerned with studies linking vaccines to asthma and neurological problems.
Source: The New York Times
Video: 'Parents Fearing Vaccines May Be Putting Children At Risk'
Health officials in the New York area are concerned that parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids, either on religious grounds or out of fears of health complications, are putting the public at risk.
Source: New York NBC affiliate WNBC
Background: ‘Court Rules that Vaccine Made Girl Autistic’
Earlier this year, the U.S. government agreed to compensate a family whose daughter developed autism-like symptoms after being vaccinated. Nonetheless, public health officials maintain that vaccines are safe. Some at the Autism Research Institute believe a combination of vaccinations, known as MMR, wasn’t tested well and could contribute to developing the disorder.
Source: findingDulcinea
Reaction: Vaccine skeptics or 'sociopaths'
Anai Rhoads Ford, a journalist in Greece, says the U.S government “has engineered a nation-wide experiment on children by ordering the Mandatory Childhood Vaccine Schedule.” The “tragedies” of the schedule are seen all over the country, Rhoads Ford said.
Source: OpEdNews.com
Megan McArdle, who writes the blog Asymmetrical Information on The Atlantic’s Web site, criticizes parents who decide against vaccinating their children. “Their precious darlings go on to infect younger children who haven’t had their vaccinations, the immunocompromised and adults whose immunity has waned,” she writes, later adding she chose the word sociopath “quite deliberately.”
Source: The Atlantic
Related Topic: ‘Belgium Threatens to Jail Parents Who Refuse to Vaccinate Children’
Parents in Belgium are fined and sentenced to five months in jail if they do not vaccinate their children against polio. Belgium requires everyone to be vaccinated against the disease unless they can provide documentation that the vaccine will harm them. Since the World Health Organization began global polio vaccinations in 1989, the disease’s incidence has dropped by 99 percent.
Source: Fox News
Reference: Using the Web to Understand Autism
Read more about autism and other pervasive developmental disorders, how they are treated, and how families can cope in the findingDulcinea Autism Web Guide.
Source: findingDulcinea
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