How would you feel if...

One of today's big medical concerns are vaccines. More and more people question them. And that is OK since questioning is the best path to evolution. But...there are times when this questioning can become harmful.

Science has proven repeatedly that vaccines can basically eradicate certain diseases. Polio, as good ol' dr. House seems to point in the meme above, has been eradicated for quite a while but it has recently re-emerged. Because, you know, people know better than scientists. And sometimes...scientists have weird ideas. This is the case of mr. Andrew Wakefield, a British former gastroenterologist and medical researcher. In 1998 he published a case series in the Lancet medical journal that suggested that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines may, “predispose to behavioral regression and pervasive development disorder in children.” As all bad science, his work was heavily publicized and "conscious" parents began to skip this vaccine.

A few months after the publication, Britain’s General Medical Council revoked Wakefield’s medical license. But it was too late — misinformation had spread like wildfire and with the growing adoption of the Internet, the movement began to enter the mainstream.

In response, the American Academy of Pediatrics first produced a 21-page document in 1999 listing all of the studies that clearly show there is no link between vaccines and autism. A study of infant rhesus monkeys also shows that vaccination does not produce neurobiological changes in the brain.

Basically - vaccines are as safe as can be and they certainly do not cause autism. But the harm was done, and all conspiracy theorists had a new shiny toy. The idea of vaccines as being harmfull has spread like fire since then.
Diseases like measels, mumps, chicken pox and whooping cough are making a strong comeback, all thanks to the knowledgeable anti-vaxxers.

Here is a link to an interactive map that show which vaccine preventable disease are re-emerging and where:
http://www.vaccineswork.org/vaccine-preventable-disease-outbreaks/

And here is where i think anti-vaxxers are wrong - i get it, you think you are entitled to refuse a vaccine. And to some extent, you are, but only when it concerns yourself. But for others? Especially eldery incapacitated people and infants - that is a completely different story. Are you willing to risk the lives and health of those you love because you spent a couple of afternoons reading hearsay and conspiracy theories?

Would you be willing to risk seeing your loved ones in an iron lung? Because you denied them their polio vaccine?

How would you feel if smallpox came back and started to kill 25-50% of those unvaccinated? After all it is what it did to the native americand back in the 17th century?

Just think about it...how would it feel?

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