Ignorance is the only evil

“Vaccines don't cause autism. Vaccines, instead, prevent disease. Vaccines have wiped out a score of formerly deadly childhood diseases. Vaccine skepticism has helped to bring some of those diseases back from near extinction.”
--Alex Pareene

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Ignorance will kill more children than the measles outbreak.
If Hippocrates were alive today, he would have spanked idiotic parents whose skepticism has caused them to falsify the true essence of the modern medicine’s immunization program.
Filipino children denied of immunization only because their parents are ignorant or misinformed are still protected by law, thus they can still be saved from parental stupidity.
The Philippines has the Republic Act 10152 or the Mandatory Infants and Children Health Immunization Act of 2011.
Under this law, government hospitals and health centers are mandated to provide immunization for free to infants and children up to five years old.
Some Filipino parents refuse to immunize their kids for fear that the vaccine might harm the tots, a jittery caused by the Dengvaxia imbroglio.
Other parents are still influenced by a debunked study that claims certain vaccines could lead to autism and a theory that claims vaccines were linked to brain damage.
Because of these fears, thousands of Filipino kids who have not been immunized were in danger of being seriously infected with diseases like the measles, rubella, mumps and hepatitis.
In fact, the Department of Health (DOH) has already declared a measles outbreak over the week.
No less than the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) along with Filipino pediatricians as well as experts on infectious diseases have expressed alarm over the measles outbreak in the Philippines that has affected some 20,000 children since December 2018.
Children’s disease is evil, but the biggest evil is that which has created a monster in the minds of some nervous parents.
In fact, there is no evil in this world, according to Socrates, but ignorance.

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If “mama” or “papa” are adamant, do it yourself--if you can.
Take the case of a brave 18-year-old teen from Norfolk, Ohio who recently made the decision to receive his first-ever vaccines for a number of diseases despite his parents’ beliefs.
The Hill reported that Ethan Lindenberger admitted he had gone without vaccines for diseases like the measles, rubella, mumps and hepatitis for his entire life due to his mother’s anti-vaccine beliefs.
He told the publication that his mother, Jill Wheeler, was influenced by online misinformation, including a debunked study that claims certain vaccines could lead to autism and a theory that claims vaccines were linked to brain damage.
Throughout his childhood, Lindenberger said his mother would tell him about the negative side effects of vaccines and how they were bad. He also said he thought it was normal for children not to receive vaccines. But after he realized his other friends and classmates had all been vaccinated, Lindenberger said that’s when he began to do his own research into the matter, reported The Hill.

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“When I started looking into it myself, it became very apparent that there was a lot more evidence in defense of vaccinations, in their favor,” Lindenberger said.
Lindenberger said he later approached his mother with research that debunked some of her claims, including a report from the CDC that explained how vaccines did not cause autism.
"Her response was simply 'that's what they want you to think,'" Lindenberger said. "I was just blown away that you know, the largest health organization in the entire world would be written off with a kind of conspiracy theory-like statement like that."
After failing to change his mother’s thinking on the matter, Lindenberger decided to get vaccinated on his own after turning 18 years old.
As the publication also notes, the story comes at a time when more measles outbreaks have been reported in the Pacific Northwest, prompting more concern among minors about whether they are able to use their own consent to obtain vaccines.
In the month of January alone, measles were confirmed in ten states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington, according to the CDC.
Washington officials also declared a public health emergency as an outbreak of measles spread across an anti-vaccination "hot spot" near Portland, Oregon, late last month.