A Problem That Will Solve Itself

Frequently, in society today we are subjected to witnessing where human beings have reached a point in our evolution that our intelligence has made us stupid and our obsession with observing all has made us blind. Case in point, a portion of what seems to be flooding the papers are parents who are refusing to vaccinate their children for a plethora of reasons. Among them are: the fear of causing autism or other challenges, a conflict of forcing vaccines upon children unable to give consent, and that vaccines are an “experimental product based on an unproven theory,” and they “do not immediately save a life or treat an existing illness.”

Despite the CDC estimating that vaccines will prevent over twenty million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths, anti-vaxer parents are still convinced that the effects simply aren’t worth it. Rather than argue the scientific point that has been beaten into the ground (you can’t convince a brick wall of anything), I think it’s best to target the source of the problem. A connection that I’ve noticed when reviewing these cases and articles is that many parents seem to be having an outward show of sympathy for their children as a coping mechanism. As Susan Senator, a mother of two autistic children and the author of several books about autism, said, “I used to be terrified that vaccines might have caused my oldest son Nat’s severe autism… back then a lot of my sympathy, I’ll admit, was for myself and my struggles… and I needed to find something to blame.” 

Science is something that is incredibly difficult to argue, and mothers and fathers that consistently tell trained doctors that their “opinions” are misinformed and worthless prove that even through the most difficult situations, the impossible can happen. 

One can argue that no one has the right to tell a parent how to raise their children or that it’s a personal matter. The fact is, it’s not. Whatever your opinion may be, one cannot deny the recent outbreaks of diseases we thought to be long gone, such as the whooping cough or more notably, measles. In 2013, Texas braved a surge of roughly 4,000 whooping cough cases, which was recorded as the largest outbreak since 1959. Even more relevant, the measles virus was determined to be eradicated in 2000, but because more and more parents are refusing to vaccinate their children, it has begun to resurface. 

It is not a personal matter. Diseases are very much a shared and public matter; the selfishness that it takes to deny a child medical treatment because of a minimized risk not only puts your child into harms way, but every other child they come into contact with, as well. Opinions differ, but what we can all agree on is we’d rather not be thrust back into the Middle Ages because no one wants to trust an informed medical professional’s decision while they’re too absorbed in their own self pity and guilt. I struggle to believe that Anti-Vaxing is about the betterment of their child and instead just another stupid fad composed to make someone feel better. The difference is this one is harmful and it’s dangerous. Autism is nothing to be joked about, but it does not take your life away. It just forces you to adjust to a new one. Diseases, however, prevent us from adjusting to any life at all.