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/
jpak
(41,742 posts)yup
greymattermom
(5,751 posts)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)The same should apply to folks who don't get vaccines, unless there is a medical reason for it.
no_hypocrisy
(45,786 posts)It's not about YOU. It's about THEM.
LiberalArkie
(15,686 posts)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)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 fathers aunt, a mother of three, died in the flu epidemic, as did his other aunts 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 ones 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.
Netflixs 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)
geralmar This message was self-deleted by its author.
ArizonaLib
(1,242 posts)She can't let kids die just because she wants to do whatever the hell she wants.
shawn703
(2,702 posts)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 dont want to move? Get your vaccinations.
Igel
(35,199 posts)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)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)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)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)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)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 cant be told what to do.
Politicub
(12,163 posts)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)probability that a disease will spread and kill other people."
CTAtheist
(88 posts)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!
Lucky Luciano
(11,242 posts)uriel1972
(4,261 posts)YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)But with enough duct tape, you can at least muffle the sound (Me).
AwakeAtLast
(14,112 posts)GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)Lots of Pro-Plague believers are on the left as well.
Kablooie
(18,572 posts)It seems that all vaccinated people won't get it so the no vac people will just be hurting themselves.
uriel1972
(4,261 posts)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.
LonePirate
(13,386 posts)Beartracks
(12,761 posts)... at whatever speed *I* choose! It's all about me!! Me, me meeeee!"
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leftofcool
(19,460 posts)susanna
(5,231 posts)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.
truthisfreedom
(23,113 posts)Permanently.
Aussie105
(5,215 posts)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!