Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

groundloop

(11,488 posts)
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 09:27 AM Apr 2019

Amid measles outbreak, anti-vaccination mother defends "medical freedom"

Source: CBS News

Health officials fear Americans traveling for this weekend's religious holidays could worsen the growing measles outbreak. There are at least 555 confirmed cases in 20 states, according to the CDC, and most are said to involve school age kids.

A judge in New York dismissed a lawsuit Thursday that challenged an emergency declaration requiring residents of certain hard-hit neighborhoods to get vaccinated. While the mandatory vaccinations are still in effect, the judge did strike criminal penalties from the order. New York City has issued civil summonses for fines up to $1,000 to three parents for failing to vaccinate their children.

CBS News' Mola Lenghi spoke to one of the parents who is suing New York City, which is facing the largest measles outbreak in the country, over an order to ban unvaccinated people from public places.

"They said they won't be bullied, these are very brave people who came forward," said attorney Robert Krakow, who represents the families in the suit. "We're all for the appropriate measures to control an outbreak of disease … but New Yorkers are going to accept criminal penalties for vaccination, that's not appropriate. People have a right to make their choice."

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/measles-outbreak-new-york-mother-defends-not-vaccinating/

34 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Amid measles outbreak, anti-vaccination mother defends "medical freedom" (Original Post) groundloop Apr 2019 OP
Should read: anti-vaccination mother defends "Ignorant Bullshit" jpak Apr 2019 #1
So not getting vaccines greymattermom Apr 2019 #2
Insurance costs a lot more if you smoke. greymattermom Apr 2019 #3
YOUR "medical freedom" should not be allowed to kill YOUR child and/or MY child. no_hypocrisy Apr 2019 #4
Need to do like they used to do. LiberalArkie Apr 2019 #5
A lack of history emmaverybo Apr 2019 #16
This message was self-deleted by its author geralmar Apr 2019 #33
She is not a corporation ArizonaLib Apr 2019 #6
Paroled sex offenders are required to live a certain distance from schools shawn703 Apr 2019 #7
The same could be said for people passing through at-risk areas. Igel Apr 2019 #8
Shit. I'm in yet another 18-round throw-down in GD with the anti-vaxxers. Aristus Apr 2019 #9
They didn't arrive at this through logic... camelfan Apr 2019 #12
Yep...logical doesn't help... sdfernando Apr 2019 #14
These parents are no different then parents that let their kids play in the street. Opel_Justwax Apr 2019 #10
The government has a duty to protect people from unsafe practices. Lonestarblue Apr 2019 #11
Can we please quarantine the willfully unvaccinated? Politicub Apr 2019 #13
Se doesn't mean "medical freedom." She means "the right to take steps that will increase the Nitram Apr 2019 #15
I have no issue with people refusing vaccines CTAtheist Apr 2019 #17
Pro-plaguers should quarantine themselves far from rational people. nt Lucky Luciano Apr 2019 #18
Pro-Plague... I like the name :) nt uriel1972 Apr 2019 #19
If there were an Ebola outbreak? Would they then change their minds? YOHABLO Apr 2019 #20
You can't fix stupid (Ron White) Haggis for Breakfast Apr 2019 #21
All of a sudden they're pro choice. AwakeAtLast Apr 2019 #22
Unfortunately this kind of stupid is not limited to the right. GulfCoast66 Apr 2019 #23
Aren't the unvaccinated the only ones who get measles? Kablooie Apr 2019 #24
There are people... uriel1972 Apr 2019 #25
We need to start charging anti-vaxxers with assault or attempted murder. It's about harming others. LonePirate Apr 2019 #26
"I want driving freedom!! I want to drive in the lane of my choice... Beartracks Apr 2019 #27
Me too by damn and I don't want to have to carry car insurance! leftofcool Apr 2019 #28
I had the Measles vax (normal schedule) as a child. susanna Apr 2019 #29
Medical freedom to keep your kids and your ass at home. truthisfreedom Apr 2019 #30
Flu season! Aussie105 Apr 2019 #31
Idiot!!! paleotn Apr 2019 #32
Kick ck4829 May 2019 #34

greymattermom

(5,751 posts)
2. So not getting vaccines
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 09:32 AM
Apr 2019

is a preexisting condition for sure. And that one CAN be controlled, unlike the others that concern folks so much. So what if insurance companies refuse to pay for measles treatment?

greymattermom

(5,751 posts)
3. Insurance costs a lot more if you smoke.
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 09:33 AM
Apr 2019

The same should apply to folks who don't get vaccines, unless there is a medical reason for it.

no_hypocrisy

(45,786 posts)
4. YOUR "medical freedom" should not be allowed to kill YOUR child and/or MY child.
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 09:33 AM
Apr 2019

It's not about YOU. It's about THEM.

LiberalArkie

(15,686 posts)
5. Need to do like they used to do.
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 09:36 AM
Apr 2019

Put a big sticker on the front door saying "quarantined - do not enter" and keep the people (including the working parents) inside until it was over.

We forget what it was like before modern medicine, but if the folks do not want to play by the rules, let them go back to the old way.

emmaverybo

(8,144 posts)
16. A lack of history
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 01:14 PM
Apr 2019

You are so right. The reason we have forgotten the scourge and sorrow of childhood epidemics in America is that modern medicine wiped so many out. Years ago I worked for an elderly G.P. who said the greatest advances in medicine had been vaccinations and antibiotics. He remembered a season in hell when diphtheria ran rampant in a small Northern California town and babies, asphyxiated to death, just passed in his arms.
My mother lost her father when she was five years old to pneumonia. That changed her life forever.
My father lost his sister to the same illness. She was a healthy little girl not yet 12, taken by sepsis in a matter of days. His father dropped dead three years later from heartbreak, literally, it was said.
My father’s aunt, a mother of three, died in the flu epidemic, as did his other aunt’s only daughter and husband. For such a bug today we could do a better job of treating, but perhaps never prevent.
And of course, there was polio, which I and all my friends were vaccinated against, but the news was full of stories of the pre-vaccinated kids living in iron lungs.
An unreasonable and not science-based fear of particular medical interventions which goes so far as to endanger one’s own children and thousands of others is something I find I lack empathy for. Yes, big pharma, corporate medicine have delivered enormous and continuing death and suffering.
Netflix’s The Bleeding Edge is a must-see.
But the measles vaccination, though not 100 percent safe, has a proven track-record with such credible debunking on the myths some parents still cling to that only a kind of doubling down, superstitious, and nearly anti-social and ideological agenda can explain to me how intelligent and educated parents would put the public at such great risk to protect their own sense of medical choice.
Except for medically exempt children, public schools must stick to the old mandate. Parental choice then rests in private or home-schooling.

























Response to emmaverybo (Reply #16)

ArizonaLib

(1,242 posts)
6. She is not a corporation
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 09:38 AM
Apr 2019

She can't let kids die just because she wants to do whatever the hell she wants.

shawn703

(2,702 posts)
7. Paroled sex offenders are required to live a certain distance from schools
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 09:39 AM
Apr 2019

Maybe the same sort of restriction should apply. If your religious freedoms put other kids at risk, you need to relocate a safe distance away from where large groups of children congregate. You don’t want to move? Get your vaccinations.

Igel

(35,199 posts)
8. The same could be said for people passing through at-risk areas.
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 09:50 AM
Apr 2019

If you travel from a country that has a known measles problem, whether because you're returning to the US or coming here as visitor or migrant, you might return with an unexpected surprise.

Remember, measles was eradicated in the US. All known cases come from places with known measles problems. That can be immigrants from or travelers to/from the Philippines, Israel, Honduras, or some other places.

Their travel puts others in danger, at risk. Their freedom of movements puts kids and the immuno-compromised at risk. Rather than relocate for any significant length of time, build quarantine time into travel.

We're into limiting rights, it's just a question of whose rights we're going to limit, to what extent, and for how long.

Aristus

(66,099 posts)
9. Shit. I'm in yet another 18-round throw-down in GD with the anti-vaxxers.
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 10:02 AM
Apr 2019

I wish they'd read this, although I'm not optimistic that it would do any good.

Getting through to anti-vaxxers is like trying to eradicate crabgrass...

camelfan

(130 posts)
12. They didn't arrive at this through logic...
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 10:52 AM
Apr 2019

and logic will not be able to deliver them some truth. The harsh reality of life in the United States with measles outbreaks popping up everywhere...you know, like NOW...has a better chance of shaking some people out of their complacency. But the only real answer is to drop the superstitious (mostly religious) bullshit and embrace science. But we're going in the wrong direction. Flat earthers are being taken seriously, and the people who believe them have no capacity to be swayed by logic. Climate change is the same. And now vaccinations. And we're collectively to blame, for putting these science-denying nitwits in power. I'm trying not to be such a pessimist, but a big part of me wonders if it's simply too late for us. Reminds me of an old joke from Murphy Brown. I think it was Newt Gingrich, who was so homophobic he wanted to change the name of our species to Hetero sapiens. Sounds about right.

sdfernando

(4,897 posts)
14. Yep...logical doesn't help...
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 11:56 AM
Apr 2019

I'm thinking that they won't change until one of their children dies from the measles...even then some of the religious NUTS will justify it as god's will.

Opel_Justwax

(230 posts)
10. These parents are no different then parents that let their kids play in the street.
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 10:18 AM
Apr 2019

Sure most cars will slow down and avoid the kids, but the danger is always there that they can be hit by a car.

Lonestarblue

(9,882 posts)
11. The government has a duty to protect people from unsafe practices.
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 10:23 AM
Apr 2019

Not vaccinating your children is an unsafe health practice based on false reports of a connection between vaccines and autism, which has been totally debunked. Meanwhile, there is a connection between autism and the quality of the food a pregnant woman eats, such as highly processed, chemical-laden food. Where are all the objections to eating food like that?

Just as the government passed laws requiring seatbelts to protect public safety, so too should we have laws about vaccination. The only exceptions should be actual medical reasons, such as a young child with a compromised immune system, not these flimsy excuses of religious or personal objection solely to tell the government that they can’t be told what to do.

Politicub

(12,163 posts)
13. Can we please quarantine the willfully unvaccinated?
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 11:10 AM
Apr 2019

They are a public health risk and should be treated as such.

Together, they can experience all of the disease freedom that their pox-riddled hearts desire.

Nitram

(22,671 posts)
15. Se doesn't mean "medical freedom." She means "the right to take steps that will increase the
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 12:29 PM
Apr 2019

probability that a disease will spread and kill other people."

 

CTAtheist

(88 posts)
17. I have no issue with people refusing vaccines
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 01:32 PM
Apr 2019

But, since they are part of a society, we need to protect ourselves from them. So, they will be quarantined in their own house, and can NEVER leave or interact with anyone outside (aka delivery people). An armed CDC agent will stand outside their house with an AR-15, and if they attempt to leave, will give them a 20 second warning before opening fire.

Enjoy your "medical" freedom!

GulfCoast66

(11,949 posts)
23. Unfortunately this kind of stupid is not limited to the right.
Fri Apr 19, 2019, 11:20 PM
Apr 2019

Lots of Pro-Plague believers are on the left as well.

Kablooie

(18,572 posts)
24. Aren't the unvaccinated the only ones who get measles?
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 07:56 PM
Apr 2019

It seems that all vaccinated people won't get it so the no vac people will just be hurting themselves.

uriel1972

(4,261 posts)
25. There are people...
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 09:02 PM
Apr 2019

especially those with immune deficiencies that can't have the vaccine, because, you know it might kill them. These people have done nothing wrong, they would be innocent victims of measles outbreaks caused by unvaccinated people.

They are the canaries in the coalmine.

Beartracks

(12,761 posts)
27. "I want driving freedom!! I want to drive in the lane of my choice...
Mon Apr 22, 2019, 09:11 PM
Apr 2019

... at whatever speed *I* choose! It's all about me!! Me, me meeeee!"

=======

susanna

(5,231 posts)
29. I had the Measles vax (normal schedule) as a child.
Tue Apr 23, 2019, 02:47 AM
Apr 2019

But now I find out mine might not have been sufficient, based on the composition of the vaccine.

I cannot be boostered now because of a serious health condition. I hate even leaving my house because I AM UNPROTECTED in a nation that used to have this stuff handled.

I am terrified. If I get sick with measles, now, it could end my life.

I might get lucky - my old-timey vax might still hold, but that's a lot of wishes and my very life in the balance.

This shit is unreal.

Aussie105

(5,215 posts)
31. Flu season!
Tue Apr 23, 2019, 08:58 AM
Apr 2019

Flu season coming up in Australia.

That's not as bad as measles, but why risk being unprotected?

Getting the vaccine the day the new batch arrives at the doctors, no worries there.
(It's free.)

Anti vaxxers - so silly!

Latest Discussions»Latest Breaking News»Amid measles outbreak, an...