A startlingly candid view
Medical doctor is nostalgic for the days when people died in their thousands of cholera, diphtheria, typhus, tb, smallpox.
Offering a startlingly candid view into the philosophy guiding vaccine recommendations under the Trump administration, the leader of the federal panel that recommends vaccines for Americans said shots against polio and measles — and perhaps all diseases — should be optional, offered only in consultation with a clinician.
Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who is chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said that he did have “concerns” that some children might die of measles or become paralyzed with polio as a result of a choice not to vaccinate. But, he said, “I also am saddened when people die of alcoholic diseases,” adding, “Freedom of choice and bad health outcomes.”
Maybe, just maybe, freedom of choice is not more important than herd immunity. Maybe freedom of choice that puts other people at risk is not a valid form of freedom of choice. Maybe the collective good actually does matter more than Mai Perrsonal Choyce.
In the case of an infectious disease, a personal choice to decline a vaccine may also affect others, including infants who are too young to be vaccinated or people who are immunocompromised. But a person’s right to reject a vaccine supersedes those risks, Dr. Milhoan said.
Nope, it doesn’t. Maybe if said person lives in a sealed building and is never physically able to infect other people said person has a right to reject a vaccine, but otherwise, no. People don’t have a right to run over pedestrians, they don’t have a right to set fire to the neighborhood because they’re chilly, they don’t have a right to take up two seats on the bus when people are standing.
Dr. Milhoan said that making the vaccines optional, rather than requiring them for entry into public schools nationwide, as is now the case, would ultimately restore trust in public health.
As measles and polio come roaring back? I don’t think so.
“He has no idea what he’s talking about,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the infectious disease committee at the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“These vaccines protect children and save lives,” Dr. O’Leary said. “It’s very frustrating for those of us who spend our careers trying to do what we can to improve the health of children to see harm coming to children because of an ideological agenda not grounded in science.”
But freedom! Freedom freedom freedom!
So the kids who die or are paralyzed made a choice not to get vaccinated? Their parents did, and to chalk their potential deaths up to choice is callous at best.
And I claim the right and freedom to drive on whichever side of the road I choose, and in whatever country I happen to be in. My choice of vehicle is an ex-army half-track, and it’s clearly labelled ‘GET OUTA MY WAY.!!!’
So people have a choice about getting vaccinated. But the people who are immunocompromised and get sick from someone who didn’t vaccinate don’t have a choice about whether to die. Got it.
And who, exactly, has been busily undermining trust in public health? Could it be Kennedy and his cohort lying about the risks of vaccines (which are negligible) and downplaying the risks of diseases (which are horrendous, even when they don’t end in permanent disability and/or death)? When the public understood diseases, and there were very few cranks, people queued for hours to get their children vaccinated.
Kennedy seems to believe that children aren’t people, just possessions, and whether they live or die of preventable natural causes is the choice of their
ownersparents and guardians.The major side effects of vaccines are well known and fully documented. They include old age and grandchildren. Making vaccines optional is the same kind of freedom as making stop signs and traffic lights optional. Do Trump and Co. think the Russians and Chinese will be goaded into trying to keep up with this great American “advance” in public health? Hardly. They know better. How exactly does subjecting Americans to the ravages of debilitating, preventable disease make America “great”? Besides, the experiment has already been run. If you want to discover the military/political consequences of unleashing a virulent, fatal, epidemic disease on the populace of an empire, you can just ask Montezuma and Atahualpa.
Speaking of military implications of “optional” vaccines, those work in both directions. It will be interesting to see if the US armed forces relax their immunization requirements for members serving overseas. If they do, you might start seeing troops deployed in foreign parts falling to diseases against which they have no protection. That’s gonna put a dent in American foreign policy if US troops are unable to operate in all the theaters of operation they are ordered to cover. This can only play into the hands of America’s adversaries. Tell me how does that work towards “greatness”?