[ad_1]
The following editorial published in the Houston Chronicle on November 18:
It is not enough that the health of thousands of children attending public schools in Texas has been compromised by the highly misguided anti-vaccination movement.
Now, an anti-vaccine group is targeting the youngest children who are not even of school age.
Texans for Vaccine Choice stated that it wanted to help children who were denied access to private day care because they were not immune to childhood illness. The organization believes that the right of parents to decide what drugs may be administered to their children outweighs the right of other parents to protect the health of their children. Following this logic, parents who think their children need guns to be safe should be able to put Glocks in the backpack of little Susie or Johnny.
Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children put their own children and classmates at risk. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, earlier this year, reported 172 deaths of children through influenza. This is the largest number of influenza-related deaths among children in a single influenza season (excluding pandemics). The CDC said that 80% of the dead children had not received a flu shot.
Texas has become a hotbed for the anti-immunization movement. At least 57,000 students in this school year benefited from an exemption. That's 20 times more than in 2003 – and the problem could be worse. Nobody knows how many home-schooled children have not been vaccinated, says Peter J. Hotez, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine.
According to the CDC, vaccination prevents 14 childhood diseases, including chickenpox, mumps, measles and whooping cough. Unfortunately, many of these diseases that once seemed eradicated in the United States have re-emerged largely thanks to the anti-immunization movement.
Groups like TVC have used exemptions granted by most states to parents who do not want their children to be vaccinated for religious or philosophical reasons to impose their will on parents trying to protect the health of their children. At present, TVC wants to extend its scope to day care by calling for a law extending the public school exemption to private schools.
The best way to put an end to this attack on public health is to get rid of the loophole that the anti-immunization movement exploits. It is not easy to limit the parents' right to Texas, a proud state to exhort personal freedom. But every legislator elected in Austin has accepted the responsibility to act in the best interest of the general public. This includes protecting the health of the public.
Diseases that could be prevented by inoculation should be. Parents who believe otherwise are entitled to their convictions, but they have no right to neglect the health and lives of others, especially when we talk about children.
[ad_2]
Source link
